Political Settings Research Articles

The Importance of Individual Actor Characteristics and Contextual Aspects for Promoting Industrial Symbiosis Networks

Factors that affect and influence industrial symbiosis (IS) collaborations have been researched extensively in the literature, where they are mostly reported at a network level or for IS in general, and lack the individual actor’s perspective. This review article contributes to and expands knowledge of influencing factors and their effect on the individual actor. In a systematic review, guided by the PRISMA 2020 guidelines, this study reviews 53 scientific papers examining planned or existing IS networks. It examines literature from 1 January 2000 to 28 March 2022, and it identifies drivers, barriers, and enablers influencing actors to participate in IS. It explores whether and how the perception and impact of these factors differs depending on the characteristics of individual actors and their specific context. The main findings of this study reveal that an actor’s specific characteristics and the network’s context have a significant impact on decision making and how actors both perceive and are affected by factors influencing collaboration. Furthermore, an additional novel contribution to this field of research is that the study identifies three underlying and recurring considerations that actors appear to find critical, namely, perceived business opportunities/risks, regulatory and political setting, and potential inequalities in the network. The results show that an actor’s take on these critical considerations determines whether the actor is willing to engage in IS.

Local placement test retrofit and building language assessment literacy with teacher stakeholders: A case study from Colombia

This article provides a single, common-case study of a test retrofit project at one Colombian university. It reports on how the test retrofit project was carried out and describes the different areas of language assessment literacy the project afforded local teacher stakeholders. This project was successful in that it modified the test constructs and item types, while drawing stronger connections between the curriculum and the placement instrument. It also established a conceptual framework for the test and produced a more robust test form, psychometrically. The project intersected with different social forces, which impacted the project’s outcome in various ways. The project also illustrates how test retrofit provided local teachers with opportunities for language assessment literacy and with evidence-based knowledge about their students’ language proficiency. The study concludes that local assessment projects have the capacity to benefit local teachers, especially in terms of increased language assessment literacy. Intrinsic to a project’s sustainability are long-term financial commitment and institutionally established dedicated time, assigned to teacher participants. The study also concludes that project leadership requires both assessment and political skill sets, to conduct defensible research while compelling institutions to see the potential benefits of an ongoing test development or retrofit project.

Exhibition Activities of the Pavlovsk Palace and Park Ensemble in the 1950s

During the period of active post-war restoration of the palace and park ensembles of Leningrad, in the absence of permanent expositions, exhibitions were one of the few ways of museum communication. The article focuses on the exhibitions of the Pavlovsk Palace Museum and Park in the 1950s. As a research base, the author uses articles from the newspaper “Vperyod” issued in the city of Pushkin, and unpublished materials of the Central State Archive of Literature and Art of St. Petersburg: reports and plans of the directorate, programs of festive events, minutes of the scientific department employees’ meetings, financial reports of the 1950s, etc.On the example of Pavlovsk, the article reveals the essence of exhibitions as a typical phenomenon for a museum complex, as well as for a culture and recreation park, which allowed forming civic consciousness and implementing state cultural policy. The exhibitions helped to solve a set of political, educational, personality-developing, leisure, and cultural tasks of Soviet cultural institutions.The author conducts a comparative quantitative analysis of the total number of exhibitions by year. Based on the content of the exhibitions, there is provided a universal thematic classification. The article shows the connection of the disclosed topics and the number of exhibitions with the cultural and political situation in the country during that period. There is determined the organizational specifics of the process, within which the main sites, time and forms of exhibitions are identified.The article concludes that most of the exhibitions did not correspond to the museum’s essence, but those that related directly to the history of the museum and its collections were in tourist demand. Some of the exhibitions of the museum profile, over time, determined the content of the future permanent expositions of the State Museum-Reserve “Pavlovsk”. The emergence and growth of such exhibitions, covered in the media, contributed to the activation of visitor interest in Pavlovsk as a museum and the development of cultural tourism, primarily at the local and regional level.

Antitrust, Big Tech, and Democracy: A Research Agenda

In the twenty-first century, voter choice and the broader political debate are within the reach of those that can access and channel the vast streams of user data that are generated online. How digital platforms utilize personal user data to influence the outcome of democratic processes has become a central issue that liberal democracies must confront. The paper explores whether competition law has a role to play when it comes to addressing this intersection of Big Tech, data, and democracy. It first sets out the democratic roots of competition or antitrust law in the United States and the European Union. From these, the paper deduces that competition law cannot remain inactive when it comes to maintaining a democratic society in the face of the abilities of Big Tech to influence democratic processes and outcomes. The paper then goes a step further and asks what role competition law could play in this regard. Should democratic values simply be reflected in the procedural set-up of antitrust law, or is there a role for democratic values in the substantive provisions as well? And if so, does antitrust law’s focus on keeping market power in check suffice to fulfill its role in a democratic society, or does this role require the law to specifically target antidemocratic market behavior as anticompetitive harm? In navigating these questions, the paper contributes to the ongoing debate on political antitrust and sets out an ambitious research agenda on how to carry this discussion forward.

Methodological Challenges in Conducting Sexual and Reproductive Health Research Among Young Males in Bangladesh: Reflections From a Nationwide Mixed Methods Study

Applied mixed methods research for sexual and reproductive health (SRH) issues involves multiple researchers and presents numerous responsibilities as well as unforeseen challenges. These challenges together with the often ignored and under-researched area of male sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in Bangladesh require researchers to navigate cultural stigmas associated with SRH and hostile political situations across the country. We conducted a nationwide mixed methods research study to explore the SRHR of male youth. This study is the first of its kind in the context of Bangladesh. The aim of this paper is to describe the challenges experienced and mitigation strategies undertaken to conduct research on the SRHR of young males in Bangladesh. A group of experts, practitioners, service delivery staff and researchers were consulted during the tool development stage. However, challenges in obtaining permission from community members, explanation of SRH-specific topics, and establishing respondents’ trust persisted throughout the study. Mitigation strategies included spending time outside of scheduled interview hours and making repeated visits to respondents to establish trust. These strategies allowed for honest discussions over time and served to assure our study respondents that the confidentiality of their data would be protected. In addition to sourcing letters from official authorities, we had conversations with community influential people such as religious leaders and political representatives about the nature of our study and explained to them the implications of the study for the future of young men’s health. Moreover, we highlight the political issues of the time and shed light on the ad hoc measures taken to overcome the challenges we faced. These reflections can provide valuable insights for researchers conducting SRHR-related studies in similar social and political settings.

Empowering Youth for Future Sustainable Development Through Integration of ICT Using Computer Education for Youth Capacity Building And Emancipation

Youth remains one of the greatest assets that any nation can possess. Potentially, they are the greatest investment for a society’s sustainable development and future. This is why it is globally and universally acknowledged that positive fundamental and meaningful changes across economic, political and cultural settings are usually engineered, fostered or shaped by the generation of youths in that society. Therefore, all culture, community and nation, whether macro or micro will allow a good percentage of her youths to be positively engaged to have her future viability and survival sustained. In Nigeria, youth empowerment has brought about a decrease in breakdown of law and order, low crime rate and intra-ethnic hostilities, increase in job creation and high productivity which have elicited national development. Youth empowerment is the most recent slogan in the mouth of contemporary global leaders and well-meaning stakeholders and citizens. Computer education is one of the main keys to economic development and improvements in human welfare. As global economic competition grows sharper, Computer education becomes an important source of competitive advantage. This paper examines empowering youth for a sustainable future through computer education. It was concluded that youth empowerment is a panacea for sustainable future and national development. Areas of concern are integration of Computer education for youth capacity building and sustainable development. The paper recommended that youths should be geared towards developing human and material resources, process and technological skills through computer education. This will sustain them occupationally and equip them better for technical work and self-employment to build the nation and bring sustainable development. Keywords : Sustainable Development, Using Computer Education, Youth Capacity Building DOI: 10.7176/JEP/13-12-08 Publication date: April 30 th 2022

Impact of Cyber Bullying on Political Behavior and Youth’s Perceptions about Use of Social Media by Political Parties of Pakistan

Purpose: Present study analyses social media users’ perceptions about presence of cyber bullying in political contents on Facebook and Twitter. In the presence of social media cells of political parties, this study designed to analyze impact of cyber bullying on political behavior of users.
 Design/Methodology/Approach: Present study utilized survey research techniques and data from 300 male and female social media users was collected through a well-designed questionnaire.
 Findings: Major findings indicate consistent use of social media by youngster and users believe that there is rise in political contents on social media. Social media bullying is creating a political divide among supporters of different political parties. Bullying contents creating hatred, enmity, hostility, aggression and anger against supporters of other parties. Users are the view that offensive language, photo shopped images, impersonation, spoofing, misleading facts are faced by users in political contents. Results also reveal that male users face more offensive language as compared to female users of social media due to wider friendship circle.
 Implications/Originality/Value: It is evident from the finding that bullying, trolling and memes has emerged as new way of political agenda setting and major area to reinforce voters about certain political ideology in the context of Pakistan’s political atmosphere.

STRENGTHENING THE STATE CYBER DEFENSE AND CREATING OF CYBER TROOPS: STATE, PROBLEMS AND ORGANIZATIONAL-ECONOMIC MEASURES FOR UKRAINE

Topicality. In the last decade, cyberspace has become the fifth separate, specific and important area of armed struggle, along with four traditional ones - "Earth", "Sea", "Air" and "Space". The use of cyber troops and cyber weapons, cyber defense, cyber operations and cyber-attacks is now considered commonplace. Since 2014, Ukraine has been forced to repel hybrid Russian armed aggression, including in cyberspace. But the recognition of cyber defense as a new important component of its defense took place only in March 2016 in the Cyber Security Strategy of Ukraine [1] (hereinafter - the Strategy). At the same time, it states, in particular, that "The basis of the national cybersecurity system will be the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine, the National Police of Ukraine, the National Bank of Ukraine." The Strategy also for the first time for the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (Ministry of Defense) and the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (General Staff of the Armed Forces) identified additional new main tasks, namely: measures to prepare the state to repel military aggression in cyberspace; military cooperation with NATO related to cyber security and joint protection against cyber threats; Ensuring in cooperation with the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine and the Security Service of Ukraine cyber protection of its own information infrastructure. Cyber defense - a set of political, economic, social, military, scientific, scientific and technical, informational, legal, organizational and other measures carried out in cyberspace and aimed at protecting the sovereignty and defense capabilities of the state, preventing armed conflict and repelling armed aggression. Aim and tasks. The purpose of the article is to determine the scientific basis for strengthening the state's cyber defense and creating cyber troops. The organization of effective cyber defense of the state requires the solution of a number of important tasks and, first of all, the elimination of gaps in the regulatory framework. It is unfortunate to recognize that so far, the legislation of Ukraine does not define the basics of cyber defense, especially the purpose, goals, principles and objectives of cyber defense, its subjects and objects, construction, preparation and conduct of such defense, as well as the relevant powers of public authorities. functions and tasks of military administration bodies, other state bodies, responsibilities of officials, rights and responsibilities of citizens of Ukraine, etc. And this, in our opinion, makes it impossible to adequately define the tasks of cyber troops, which should play a leading role in the implementation of cyber defense tasks and should be created to implement the aforementioned decision of the President of Ukraine. Research results. Modern challenges and integrated threats to peace and stability have given rise to new approaches to practice cooperation in the field of cyber defense. The community has arrived agreement that only by joint efforts and on the basis of international law can security be resolved problems of the global information environment in the context of countering the latest information threats. Therefore, the need for policy research is obvious cyber defense of organizations introduced recently, practical consideration of new documents and decisions on their institutional support and implementation in the activities of member states. Conclusion. The transformation of the information paradigm of global development, which is a reflection of new patterns of formation of the modern system of international relations, testifies to the innovations of international cooperation in the field of information and communication and accordingly needs to improve policies for international peace and stability. Modernization of international information security policies is determined by their ability to ensure a multilateral dialogue of international actors, take into account the different positions of global actors in combating the latest information threats and act in accordance with their statutory powers as universal international platforms for consensus on current security issues.

Lexical bundles in formulaic interpreting

Abstract Inspired by Henriksen (2007), this article investigates some key characteristics of formulaic interpreting, understood as the recurrent use of linguistic formulae in interpreted texts. Using a Chinese-English corpus of consecutive interpreting in the political setting (CICPPC), the study quantitatively investigates some features of 4-gram lexical bundles in interpreted text, i.e., their discourse functions and relationships to the source text, and qualitatively studies characteristics of specific instances of lexical bundles. The patterns are described both in terms of equivalence, shifts, and additions, as well as ‘constraints on formulaicity,’ a generalization that captures the tension involved between frequency-driven selection and the need to establish a translational relationship. It is suggested that equivalence typical of form-based rendition and addition typical of meaning-based rendition are subject to lower constraints, while greater constraints pertain in the case of shifts.

Disasters and History: The Vulnerability and Resilience of Past Societies by Bas van Bavel et al.

On May 17, 2021, cyclone Tauktae made landfall in the state of Gujarat on the west coast of India. Classified as an extremely severe cyclonic storm by the Indian Meteorological Department, Tauktae resulted in at least 169 deaths and the displacement of more than 200,000 people. Its destructive force was boosted by India’s struggle with the second global wave of covid-19 at the time. Tauktae made landfall on the day when India recorded its second highest single-day death toll at the time. India had to deal with two disasters simultaneously, one meteorological-hydrological and one biological.Disasters and History helps us to understand such disasters by treating historical disasters as a laboratory “to test theories with relevance beyond particular time-space contexts” (43). The authors show what seemingly diverse events such as earthquakes, droughts, or epidemics have in common. Although varying considerably in both their causes and consequences, these disasters are all triggered by biophysical shocks and hazards. Whether a particular shock, or set of shocks, turns into a disaster depends on the social, economic, political, and cultural setting in which it occurs. Various pre-conditions make a society more or less vulnerable to these hazards. Moreover, the manner in which people react to these shocks, or fail to do so, determines the results. Hence, the two central concepts that this book features, as the subtitle clearly suggests, are vulnerability and resilience.The authors have gained extensive experience in researching historical disasters, both independently and collaboratively. Their combined effort allows them to cover the period from the fourteenth to the twenty-first century. The case studies that illustrate the core arguments of the book may be limited in number, but they aptly represent different types of disaster—The Black Death of 1348, the medieval and early modern North Sea floods, the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, the 1930s American Dust Bowl, the twentieth-century famines of Sub-Saharan Africa, and the tsunami in Japan that led to the Fukushima disaster.This book is, above all, an excellent guide to research about historical disasters; each entry in the table of contents could apply to the design of a distinct research project. Chapter 3, about materials and methods, is particularly helpful in this respect. When attempting to assess the severity of an initial ecological shock in the period before instrumental recording, scholars often faced difficulties in finding reliable evidence. Whenever direct recordings of hazards by historical contemporaries, such as those in English manorial accounts, are not available, the authors suggest a turn to “indirect recordings of processes and phenomena that were influenced by environmental conditions,” such as harvest accounts or registers of taxes and rents (44). Similarly, a lack of direct evidence about the severity of a disaster, such as mortality statistics, can find some compensation in a range of proxy data like parish registers or burial records.For scholars who approach disasters from an interdisciplinary perspective, the sub-chapter about combining historical data with sources from the natural sciences is highly instructive (53–57). The rapidly developing discipline of paleoclimatology—an obvious boon to scholars of historical disasters—has opened new windows onto climate history and extreme weather events in the past. The authors present both the possibilities and the limitations of paleoclimatic reconstructions. Although these data add an additional layer to the written records mentioned above, they still need to be viewed critically since they vary in their geographical coverage and temporal resolution. The relevance of Disasters and History to every conceivable disaster, whether past, present, or future, makes it an invaluable resource for interdisciplinary scholars of climate and environment.

Write as another: Edith Eaton’s ‘Wing Sing of Los Angeles on His Travels’

With the recent publication of Becoming Sui Sin Far (2016), the travel writing of Chinese North American writer Edith Eaton, which is quite unique in her oeuvre in terms of both genre and style, became available in complete form for the first time. In this article I explore the many strategies and devices Eaton invented for her travel writing and argue that ‘Wing Sing of Los Angeles on His Travels’ is of great significance in the criticism of Eaton’s writing as it manifests a progressive set of identity politics. Eaton dismantles the binary opposition between self and other by writing as another; that is, by taking on a persona that enables her to see through another’s eyes, and thus to neutralise the orientalist gaze and promote individuality over group stereotypes. The travel series sparkles in many places with perspectives and conceptions well ahead of its time, which demonstrates clearly that Eaton embraces an ideal of tolerance and openness.

Debates on Schooling the Mind in Colonial Bengal

The making of the enlightenment in the age of imperial expansion through the analytical frame of knowledge and pedagogies were subjects of debate in nineteenth-century India, and continue to remain so. There was a set of complicated political, social and psychological process involved in colonial schooling in India as a public site to frame native subjectivities. This has resulted in a unique formulation of racial-civilisational location of Indian subjectivity, with its alternate configuration of power. The article seeks to emphasise the disparate discourses on the prevalent education system, and the reaction of Bengali intellectuals towards ‘modern’ Western pedagogy in nineteenth-century Bengal. The critical debates, ranging from commendation to condemnation underline the dilemma of a period of transition. As a subject of experimental formulations of ideas and system, the native learner was at the centre of a cultural tussle that got torn between Western impositions and nationalistic sentiments.

The impact of climate change awareness on behavioral changes in Germany: changing minds or changing behavior?

BackgroundThe increasing frequency of extreme weather events across the globe, the intensifying international debates about the political urgency to mitigate climate change, as well as the respective more action demanding social movements have caused a significant increase in climate change awareness among the population. Little research, however, has systematically analyzed the behavioral impact of this development. Using Germany as a case study, we therefore scrutinize whether the recent increase in climate change awareness triggered mainly changes in public perceptions concerning environmental and sustainability issues or whether it has led to sustainable behavioral shifts. Based on previous research, we considered two routes through which an increase in climate change awareness can instigate changes: (a) directly by leading to behavioral changes towards more sustainable consumption decisions, or (b) indirectly by exerting pressure on the political process.ResultsThe analyzed data in the three consumption sectors of mobility, food consumption and housing confirm the continuing prevalence of an attitude–behavior gap: although there is a broad, strongly positive attitude towards climate protection and increasingly high problem awareness of climate change, so far this attitude does not immediately translate into notable behavioral changes. With regard to effects on political agenda setting, however, the effects are much more immediate. The results confirm strong pressure on the political process mainly through shifts in voter behavior.ConclusionsThe results show that the increase in climate change awareness has spurred dynamics in the debate around climate change both among the population and in the political realm. Fueled by the intense media coverage of the Fridays For Future movement and related activities, a snowball effect has been set off, opening a window of opportunity for significant shifts towards more effective and rigorous climate policies. Politicians and decision-makers now have the opportunity to implement sustainability measures with strong support of the population, even if these imply higher costs. Whether there will be further shifts in the current lifestyle towards a more sustainable one, lifestyle changes should be carefully monitored in the coming years, as relevant data are only now becoming available.

Conservatism, social isolation and political context: Why East Europeans would leave the EU in Exit referendums

The British decision to leave the European Union after the 2016 referendum raises questions about who could be next. This article analyzes why citizens in East European Member States would vote to leave the European Union in the event of further referendums. It proposes an analytical framework that seeks to explain this strong form of Euroscepticism through four variables that are rarely linked to the European Union: political apathy and alienation, dissatisfaction with domestic democracy and economy, conservative values, and social isolation. We use individual-level data from the 2018 wave of the European Social Survey to show that citizens’ conservative attitudes and social isolation are robust determinants of a potential European Union exit vote in Eastern Europe. We also identify several country-specific causes, which means that the European Union faces particular challenges across political settings.

Putting People First, a Necessary Change in the Appraisal of Major Infrastructure Projects

Public decision-makers must ensure that investments make economic sense and are financially sustainable. When privately financed through public-private partnership agreements, a project has to be bankable as well. In the present political setting, an investment is also expected to be analyzed in terms of its contribution to Global Environmental Objectives (GEOs) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This means producing relevant information on its contribution to environmental sustainability as well as to social and economic progress. Information on the project’s redistribution impacts is also relevant in relation to SDGs, but particularly in relation to the UNECE vision of People First. This paper emphasizes the importance of following a rigorous methodology that incorporates these redistribution effects to assess any infrastructure investment. The paper also introduces two concepts – Value for People and Value for the Future – that are key to the evaluation of a project’s contribution to socio-economic development.

Lost in deliberative deficit: the dilemma and learning curve of defending the university campus in the Hong Kong 2019 protest

ABSTRACT The 2019 Anti-Extradition Bill movement (Anti-ELAB) in Hong Kong peaked the tactical radicalization of the city’s recent protest history. At the same time, it signified unprecedented tactical reconciliation between moderate and radical protestors that maintained strong movement momentum and a high degree of solidarity for a long period. An ethics of solidarity was successfully formulated to illuminate deliberative practices among participants. However, the change of protest spatiality and repertoire from wildcat protesting to temporary occupation at a university campus altered the dynamics of protestors and weakened deliberative communication. This paper illustrates the struggles and learning curves of students who suffered deliberative deficit in the interaction with other protestors. This paper argues that the occupation, despite its contested nature, offered informal experiential learning of civic engagement for the students to their political literacy and civic mentality towards social movement under the intense setting of real politics.

We Are Everywhere: Protest, Power, and Pride in the History of Queer Liberation

We Are Everywhere: Protest, Power, and Pride in the History of Queer Liberation

SAYING THE UNSAID FROM THE SAID: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF PRESIDENT BUHARI’S FIVE MINUTES BROADCAST AFTER HIS 105 DAYS MEDICAL VACATION IN LONDON

The paper explores President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria use of language in political setting. As a President, his choice of words and the language use speak a lot. Being a formal Military leader, his broadcast was more ‘khakitocratic’ (military) than democratic. His speech lasted five minutes but assessed using critical discourse analysis (CDA). The paper discusses context and culture in discursive interactions. Political language democratically, is important to national unity as it can illicit positive or otherwise reactions from electorates. Analysis for the study was based on Fairclough’s three dimensional conceptualisation of discourse with the aid of tabular illustrations. Findings reveal assumptions that unsaid words have implicit meanings than the said, being that words are neutral and, of course, the unsaid ideological politics of meanings could establish ‘khakitocratic’ language through discourse. The study concludes that people need ontological and epistemological inferences to develop societal consciousness about sociopolitical engagements to enhance understanding of undefined expressions.

Social and Political Trust in a Low Trust Society.

We study the causal relationship between social and political trust in a low trust society, a setting where this topic has received very little attention. We focus on contemporary Chile, a relatively consolidated new democracy lacking many of the conditions that fosters trust such as high socioeconomic equality, weak social divisions, or universal welfare policies. Our empirical analysis is based on a 4-wave panel survey applied to a representative sample of 2000 Chilean adults interviewed face to face each year between 2016 and 2019. Based on statistical models with varying specifications and assumptions, we find support for the institutionalist view that claims that political trust exercises a positive influence over social trust. However, contrary to recent findings for some European democracies (Sønderskov & Dinesen 2016, Seifert 2018), we also find that social trust positively affects political trust. Our results suggest that the positive relationship between both types of trust travels to different political settings, and that there is no minimum threshold required in levels of trust for this relationship to emerge.

Media discourse in China and Japan on the COVID-19 pandemic: comparative analysis of the first three months

PurposeThis study aims to analyze how English-language versions of e-newspapers in the first two countries affected, China and Japan, which are non-English-speaking countries and have different socio-economic and political settings, have highlighted Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic news and informed the global community.Design/methodology/approachA text-mining approach was used to explore experts’ thoughts as published by the two leading English-language newspapers in China and Japan from January to March 2020. This study analyzes the Opinion section, which mainly comprises editorial and the op-ed section. The current study groups all editorial discussions and highlights into ten major aspects, which cover health, economy, politics, culture and others.FindingsWithin the first three months, the media in both China and Japan shifted their focus from health and preparedness to the economy, politics and social welfare. Governance and social welfare were key concerns in China’s news media, while, in contrast, global politics received the highest level of attention from experts in Japan’s news media. Environment and technologies aspects did not receive much attention by the expert’s columns.Originality/valueAt the initial stage of a world crisis, how leading nations and initially affected nations deal with the problem, how media play their role and guide mass population with experts’ thoughts are highlighted here. The understanding developed in this study can provide guidance to news media in other countries in playing effective roles in the management of this health crisis and catastrophes.