Political Subjects Research Articles

Easy doesn’t always do it: examining the joint effects of processing fluency and motivated resistance to persuasion on political attitude change and engagement

ABSTRACT Political communicators aim to engage and persuade the public, but exposure to dissonant information can lead to defensive processing. Here, we propose that messages designed to facilitate an easy information processing experience can counteract some of the negative consequences of motivated resistance to persuasion. Using an experimental design (N = 390), we find that mock political advertisements associated with an out-party political group lead to motivated resistance to persuasion, which reduces perceived credibility and attitude change. We also find that information presented in easy-to-read font increases processing fluency, which promotes greater engagement with political topics. However, processing fluency does not interact to mitigate the negative effects of defensive processing on outcomes of engagement and persuasion.

Enacting tenant citizenship and struggles for the right to home: linking activist, active and community citizenship

ABSTRACT This paper examines how tenants in Denmark collectively enact their rights and challenge the neoliberal discourse that frames housing as an issue of personal responsibility. We show how these residents create a political subjectivity of tenants as citizens, drawing on and extending concepts of performative citizenship, by emphasizing the importance of homemaking and non-profit housing. Empirically, the analysis focuses on the movement Almen Modstand and the impact of the ‘Ghetto Plan’ legislation, which has led to the displacement of marginalized communities. Through frame analysis and ethnographic research, we highlight how both everyday community organizing and existing institutions of solidarity play a crucial role in new political subjectivations. Extending the concept of citizenship, we elaborate on a practice of defending, appropriating and extending institutions of solidarity, a process which we term as activist citizenship by active means, and conceptualize struggles for a right to home as an enactment of community citizenship.

Kozaczyzna jako czynnik w polskich sporach politycznych 1648–1649

In the years 1648–1649 the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth found itself on the verge of war with the Cossacks. The uprising of Bohdan Khmelnytsky led to a crisis in the state. The death of Władysław IV Vasa and the defeat of the Crown troops led to serious internal disputes in the Polish-Lithuanian state. The peace party clashed with the war party in the struggle for power. Both parties exploited the Cossack problem in this dispute. The Cossacks wanted to become a subject of Polish and Lithuanian politics. For the Polish and Lithuanian magnates, they were just one of the objects of political play. The years 1648–1649 were not stable in Polish politics and the Cossacks also took advantage of this.

Unveiling the Making of Trending Topics on a Digital Platform: A Research Note on Chinese Sina Weibo

Understanding the dynamics and duration of trending topics on digital platforms has been deemed a crucial issue of research in computer-mediated communication. Employing event history analysis (EHA), this study attempts to examine the antecedents of the lifespan and evolution of trending topics on Sina Weibo, one of the most prevalent social media platforms in China. Based on a collection of 2,386 Sina Weibo trending topics that emerged between January 1 and January 31, 2022, the study explores how factors of trending topics, especially their semantic and textual features, significantly influence topic persistence. Our findings indicate that the median survival time of Weibo trending topic was 6.28 hours, with an average of 8.29 hours. In addition, exogenous non-viral topics, driven by external events or media coverage, tend to remain on the trending list longer than other topics. Furthermore, political topics tend to have a relatively longer period of survival duration when compared to social events, life records and moods, and fashion and entertainment topics. Lastly, actionable and opinion-oriented topics tend to have shorter longevity compared to informational and emotional topics. By quantifying the factors that affect trending topic duration, the study offers a novel theoretical perspective on the role of political drivers and external influences in shaping collective and connective digital discourses. The findings contribute to the broader field of digital platform communication, particularly in public opinion management and content governance on social media.

Teaching students to evaluate online information in social studies: A comparative case study of teachers’ goals and approaches

ABSTRACT As young people consistently encounter social and political topics on the internet, it is critical to understand how teachers engage students in learning how to evaluate online information. This comparative case study analyzed how three social studies teachers described their goals for teaching history and government, their views on how those goals aligned with teaching students to evaluate online information, and how they approached teaching lessons on lateral reading. Through analysis of interviews, team meetings, and lesson observation records, I found that each teacher’s goals for teaching social studies informed their goals for teaching students to evaluate online information. These goals also aligned with key instructional moves each teacher made in the classroom. This case study informs our understanding of how social studies teachers approach teaching students to evaluate online information and can guide future professional development efforts that aim to cohere to teachers’ goals in their social studies classes.

The Conditions of the Working Class in 1960s Beirut: Fire and Everyday Struggles in Karantina

AbstractIn this paper, I examine the spatial processes of class formation within informal urban spaces. To do so, I consider Karantina in the 1960s, an outgrowth of one of the oldest refugee camps in the world situated in northeastern Beirut, Lebanon. I focus on the struggles of those living in precarious informal shacks, known as tanaké, who repeatedly fought against arson likely instigated by local landowners seeking to evict them. This analysis underscores the decisive role material conditions play in fostering class consciousness among a diverse population, primarily composed of factory and informal workers, as they assert their “right to the city”. I argue that these galvanising confrontations, experienced as recurrent displacement by fire, catalysed a political struggle that transformed this group from a class‐in‐itself into a class‐for‐itself. A socio‐spatial analysis of the material living conditions of the working class, defined by everyday struggles, is essential to understanding political subjectivity.

Advancing a political economy approach to health using lessons from US antitrust and climate policy.

Advocates of a political economy approach to US health policy center an analysis of power and the broad political, social, and economic landscape that enables or harms health. They must contend, however, with a dominant policy orientation focused on ensuring individual access to the existing healthcare system. This Policy Inquiry reviews the recent history of US antitrust and climate/industrial policy, both domains where policy movements taking a political economy approach have had significant and unexpected recent success, to draw lessons for health policy, in which a "care economy" movement aligned with political economy has had some momentum, but not produced major policy change. Advocates of a political economy approach to US health policy should continue to build on the momentum of the care economy movement while also looking for ways to tie healthcare market reform into the shifts in industrial policy and antitrust. Across both spaces, advocates should center the building of issue networks, make connections to historically resonant political themes, and, where possible, find ways to tap into the energy of youth organizers-all strategies shared across antitrust and climate policy.

Decentring Labour: Looking at the Everyday in the Filipinx Diaspora

AbstractScholarship on the Filipinx diaspora has tended to be framed through the analytic of labour. Such dominant framings of the Filipinx diaspora tend to set parameters for a diasporic politics that rests on normative citizenship categories. In this paper, I look to the everyday ways Filipinos navigate their lives outside the boundaries of labour. Engaging with interviews conducted on the unceded territories of the Lheidli T'enneh peoples (aka Prince George, British Columbia, Canada), I propose that there are queer ways of disentangling labour configurations by paying attention to the everyday negotiations of Filipinx people. I highlight two ways that Filipinx peoples on Lheidli T'enneh territories show where we might decentre labour as the main way the Filipinx diaspora is theorised. First, I look at the ways in which they turn to the people and places they come from in the Philippines while abroad. Second, I attend to the manner by which Filipinx people approach and appreciate Indigenous sovereignties. I argue that, taken together, their commitments to the people and places they come from and their turning towards Indigenous sovereignties, form starting points that allow for political subjectivities not squarely attached to labour and normative notions of citizenship.

Political Themes and Narratives in Videogame Cybertexts: Procedural Media Rhetoric in the Loop of Educational Practices

Introduction. General political education and a set of basic political science competences are important both for the formation of political culture of a particular person and for the balanced development of the state and strengthening of civil society. Video-game political simulators, acting as carriers and media-translators of multimodal political information, can become a legitimate participant of educational and political science discourse. Materials and Methods. The work is based on the theoretical basis of cybertextual-procedural interpretation of video games, funded by the concepts of E. Aarseth and I. Bogost. The multimodal-semiotic optics of video games is based on the synthesis of J. Havreljak and V. Toch's concepts. The teaching and learning (practical) part of the research is conceptually based on the Digital Game-Based Learning methodology of M. Prensky. Results. In the modus operandi of considering the language of video games and their media rhetorical techniques, the spectrum of dominant semiotic structures used to translate political content in video game cybertexts was explicated. The core of the political semiosphere consists of a bimodal sign structure consisting of iconic (visual-graphic and textual-letter) and procedural signs. The latter create a fundamentally new, interactive-action modality of information and communication interaction with a digital media text. The experimental part of the study confirmed the effectiveness of the DGBL methodology in studying political science topics and stories. The overwhelming majority of respondents (85%) noted the expediency of educational use of thematically profiled video game cybertexts. The final works demonstrated students' deep understanding of the dynamics and internal logic of political processes, as well as their connection with other spheres of social life. Qualitative testing showed a high (80%) mastery of thematically relevant issues and stories from the general political science course. At the same time, about 30% of students noted difficulties in mastering game interfaces and procedural mechanics of video games. KEYWORDS Conclusion. When integrating video-game cybertexts into the educational process, it is necessary to provide high-quality methodological and consulting support, as well as to have a technical (hardware and software) base and to take into account the factor of significant time expenditures required to master video games. Accordingly, it is recommended to use video-game political simulators within the framework of elective classes in political sciences. When using the DGBL methodology in the current political science teaching process, it is necessary to apply a modular approach, clearly limiting (chronologically and thematically) the work with video-game cybertexts.

Imagine air: Global commons, ‘ecological civilization’, and citizen visions beyond carbon markets in China

In global environmental governance, efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions often involve turning pollution rights into commodities, essentially privatizing the air. Policies like carbon pricing and market approaches are considered effective solutions, especially within capitalist systems, and continue to rely on logics of the tragedy of the (atmospheric) commons. In China, the Communist Party proposed environmental policies aligning with capitalist development principles under the concept of ‘ecological civilization’. However, the perspectives on the ground differ from the government’s plans. Citizens, including sci-fi enthusiasts and eco-utopian thinkers in both rural and urban areas, have their own visions for a shared future that go beyond the narrow focus on economic growth, markets and pricing. Contrary to official narratives, interviews, social media discussions and popular artworks reveal that many envision the future ‘ecological civilization’ with clean air as commons for the more-than-human world. I argue that anthropological perspectives must attend to such creative spaces in which political subjects become enfolded in the commons, without eclipsing their potential to reinforce class divisions and social inequalities in environmental aspirations.

Detaining ISIS terrorist suspects without trial by the USA in Rojava-Syria

This study discusses one of the USA’s tactics or strategies, which is the detention of ISIS terrorist suspects without charge or trial in the case of Rojava, Syria. The significance of the subject is that it is one of the most controversial topics in contemporary politics and international laws. A political analysis method was used and the research data dealt with by examining a number of variables. This paper discusses different reasons that affected the non-solution of the tactic or strategy used by the USA government in the war on terror, as well as showing the division between international laws and provisions which are mentioned in international human rights law and in international humanitarian law. This paper will focus on whether the performance of the process of detaining terrorist suspects without trial is legal or illegal. The paper will also examine a case study of Rojava’s trials, Syria and how they deal with detainees. Furthermore, this study will try to explain non-governmental organizations’ (NGO) attitudes, as these have played an important role in the showing of the USA’s tactic. This study concludes that the detention of ISIS terrorist suspects without trial raises serious legal questions, particularly with regard to due process and the right to a fair trial. Under international law, individuals have the right to be brought before a competent court, to be informed of the charges against them, and to have access to legal counsel and a fair trail.

How Life-like Digital Humans in Voting Advice Applications Can Stimulate Young Voters to Inform Themselves About Politics: The Role of Familiarity and Expertise

Conversational Agent Voting Advice Applications (CAVAAs) allow voters to ask questions about political topics in Voting Advice Applications (VAAs). Given their potential to inform young voters, designing effective CAVAAs is crucial. We conducted two experimental studies in run-up to the European Elections 2024 on the effects of different avatar types in CAVAAs. Study 1 (N = 81 theoretically educated students) examined the impact of disembodied versus embodied CAVAAs with a renowned or non-renowned digital human avatar. In study 2 (N = 199 practically educated students) the avatar’s expertise was also considered. While both studies confirmed CAVAAs are perceived as relevant information resources among young voters, the tool’s embodiment, familiarity, and expertise did not positively impact tool evaluation measures, political measures, and user behavior. However, study 2 showed that non-renowned avatars were perceived as more eerie than their renowned counterparts, confirming previous findings. We discuss the implications for theory and practice.

Organized Criminal Groups as Political Subjects of Complicity in the Activities of Extremist and Terrorist Organizations

Organized Criminal Groups as Political Subjects of Complicity in the Activities of Extremist and Terrorist Organizations

The Revival of the White Whale: Kojima’s The Phantom Pain and Death Stranding against Melville’s Moby-Dick

This article examines two videogames to uncover their anti-imperial and decolonial qualities. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (2015) and Death Stranding (2019) created by the Japanese videogame designer Hideo Kojima express commentaries on American politics and their effects on the United States and the rest of the world. Kojima has used Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851/1999), a narrative account critiquing American imperialism, as an anchor to extend his own critique of American foreign policies as an outsider affected by US global hegemony. The similarities among the two games and Melville's Moby-Dick run much deeper than what the player sees, and the internal complexities of each narrative surpass the single layer of international politics. The political themes of each game complement and continue the political themes found in Moby-Dick. Both videogames affirm a decolonizing worldview by invalidating American imperial politics and encouraging global players to do the same.

Exhibitions in a Political Context and Their Impact on Knowledge Democracy

Parliaments play a key role in the concept of knowledge democracy. They contribute to the production and dissemination of knowledge, promote critical thinking and opinion formation, and strengthen democracy through high-quality laws. Scientific investigation has always focused on the work of committees and plenary session debates, but less attention has been paid to the communication measures that contribute to informing the populace. However, these are necessary to ensure the objective reporting of the topics under debate. This article is the first to address a completely new topic of public information by parliaments: exhibitions in a political context. The new visitor center in the Austrian parliament, the Demokratikum—Experience Parliament, is used to illustrate the innovative communication measures that are being taken to educate citizens about the functions of parliamentarianism. The focus is on the production and communication of knowledge using digital and interactive exhibition stations that explain complex political topics in a user-friendly way. In addition to presenting single examples, this article aims to promote innovative communication concepts to show people all the possibilities for participation in political systems and thus strengthen the quality of democracy in the long term.

Political Theology After Humanism: Eco-theopolitics for the Twenty-first Century

ABSTRACT In this article, we summarize Carl Schmitt’s notion of political theology, while also exploring ways of going beyond its limitations. Schmitt remains within the bounds of anthropocentrism: like most modern political thinkers, the political is here entirely human and only human subjects can be the subjects of politics. However, by expanding Schmitt’s critique of modernity, a different path is possible. In the twenty-first century, the era of “technicity” is reaching its apotheosis. Peter Langford and Saul Newman highlight how the Anthropocene has become the “central domain” of thought in our era. The Anthropocene represents a metaphysical and spiritual challenge for humanity and politics alike. We propose a posthumanist elaboration of political theology through and beyond Schmitt. In our view, Langford and Newman do not go far enough in their rejection of humanist and modern politics. Instead of empowerment, the ecological crisis necessitates a “theopolitics” that disempowers the human species, while empowering nature. Against Langford and Newman, we argue that sovereignty need not be abandoned, but rather reconfigured in an ecocentric manner.

Agenda setting of Chinese Traditional Festivals in Chinese English-language Newspaper: A Content analysis of China Daily, 2011-2023

China Daily, as the leading English-language newspaper in China, plays an important role in promoting Chinese traditional festival culture to the world. The main objective of this study is to analyze the agenda setting of the articles about Chinese traditional festivals in China Daily from 2011 to 2023, and examine whether there are significant differences between different time periods in agenda setting. Based on the agenda setting theory, content analysis was used to study articles in China Daily. The coverage from 2011 to 2023 is divided into three time periods, and they were compared to examine whether there are significant differences between them in issue agenda setting and attribute agenda setting. The research results show that in issue agenda setting, with the development of time, the topics of politics and technology, as well as the reports on foreign regions and the world show an increasing trend. In attribute agenda setting, the proportions of the front page, long articles with more than 1,000 words, the types of news, and the presentation form of words and pictures coexisting all show an obvious increasing trend. Articles of Chinese traditional festivals in China Daily show significant differences in three different time periods at both issue agenda setting and attribute agenda setting levels, indicating China Daily has paid increasing attention to Chinese traditional festivals and made more and more efforts to promote Chinese traditional festivals to the world.

Место и роль международных организаций в системе международных отношений

The aim of this study is to identify the role of international organizations in the modern system of international relations and to determine the factors that influence their ability to act as fully-fledged subjects of world politics. To achieve this goal, a comprehensive methodological approach was applied, involving a combination of theoretical-comparative analysis (neorealism, liberalism, constructivism, Marxism) and examination of specific institutions. The research also draws on neo-institutional and sociological institutional perspectives, which make it possible to take into account not only the formal rules and interests of states but also bureaucratic culture, normative practices, and mechanisms of social influence within international organizations. As a result of the study, it was established that a high level of bureaucratic professionalism and the availability of their own resources enable some international organizations to push beyond the boundaries set by nation-states, thereby acquiring significant freedom of action. However, when subject to overwhelming control by member states, these organizations lose their actual independence, turning into instruments for pursuing narrow national goals. Practical findings indicate that even with the formal enshrinement of the subjectivity of international organizations, their real autonomy remains in question and largely depends on the balance of interests among states, bureaucratic structures, and transnational actors. A «neutrality threshold» was also identified: organizations maintain their impartiality and the trust of the international community only if they possess sufficient institutional resilience and resource independence. Finally, delegating authority to international organizations can enhance their subjectivity; however, states often limit this freedom through mechanisms of political and financial control. The theoretical significance of the work lies in refining the concept of the «autonomy of international organizations» within different paradigms, while the practical significance lies in the possibility of taking into account the identified factors that constrain the sovereign space of organizations when developing and reforming mechanisms of global governance.

Formal and informal integration in contexts of displacement: Exploring implications for youth civic identities

Abstract A vast number of young refugees are formally excluded from basic civil, political, and social rights in the countries where they have lived for many years, with little prospect of safe return to (and citizenship in) the places their families fled. While development policies frame youth civic participation as key to creating inclusive futures, frameworks like the Global Compact on Refugees focus on labour market integration, without reference to young people or their political subjectivities. This article draws on children’s political geographies and an intersectional approach to analyse findings from research with displaced youth in Jordan and Lebanon. Data show that although legal recognition is important, historical geopolitical dynamics, economic precarity, location, and gender significantly shape how young refugees relate to host states and navigate refugee- and nationality-based identities across and within contexts. These findings nuance understandings of young refugees’ civic identities as shaped by both interpersonal and institutional marginalization.

The portrayal in the Spanish press of migration caused by climate change: a moral framework analysis

This study analyzes how migrations due to climate change and environmental causes are represented in the leading Spanish newspapers, but from a novel perspective, linking variables such as the topics that are covered the most or the most commonly used news sources to the typology of moral frames applied. This typology is based on the moral responsibility of the media when it comes to representing climate or environmental migrants. The methodology of quantitative content analysis, combined with framing theory, was used. The findings indicate that the Spanish press presents this issue from the perspective of the intellectual elite, seeking to analyze the phenomenon with rigor, relying on experts, and combining the coldness of the data with a good dose of empathy toward the migrants’ situation. With regard to the most common topics, the causes of this type of migration stand out, along with the legal issues affecting migrants. The predominant portrayal is of the migrant as a victim, but also as a political subject, with their portrayal as a threat remaining very limited, which is novel when compared with other studies, in which this aspect holds greater relevance. In terms of moral frameworks, the one in which migrants are viewed as a biological life is most prevalent (32.1%), followed by that of empathy (30%) and hospitality (25%), with the one that views migrants as a threat having largely fallen by the wayside (11.4%). This paper also analyzes the combinations of this framework with the mentioned variables to identify possible correlations.