Political Conditions Research Articles

Effects of Urban Growth and Urbanization on the Social Environment: Case Study Old and Modern Cities of Yemen

Aim: This research was designed to study the effects of urban growth and urbanization on the social environment (Study of the state of growth and social changes in the old and modern cities of Yemen an example). Background: Yemenis have a rich history of urban centers, which have played a crucial role in trade, crafts, industries, and science. These cities have become distinct areas of cultural development, economic polarization, and cultural radiation. They are considered crucibles for social culturalintegration, nurseries for political growth, and areas for the development of national consciousness. The history of Yemen's cities and urban centers demonstrates the close link between trade, delivery routes, political governance centers, and city growth and development. Some Yemeni historical cities have played a vital role before Islam as political capitals, educators, and seaports. Cities have emerged as a result of the desire to coexist and achieve stability, reflecting spiritual, material, social, and political conditions. The growth of cities and architecture is a reflection of these changes. Methodology: The physical changes in the Republic of Yemen and the identification of the city of Aden were studied by reviewing the studies that monitored these changes and their social, economic and population effects. The study relied on secondary data in the first place. Conclusion: Yemen's population growth rate in 2004 was low at 3.01%, but it remains high due to economic and social developments and changes demographic factors such as fertility, mortality, and migration the growth rate was decreased at 2.20%. The 2004 General Population and Housing Census revealed that the resident population is spread across various governorates, with Ta'izz, Hodeidah, and Ibb having the highest proportions. The General Census of Population and Establishments revealed changes in the relative weight of the provincial population between the 1994 and 2004 censuses, with some governorates experiencing an increase in population relative to the population, while others experienced a decrease. The annual growth rate of the resident population was 3.0%, and the proportion of the young age group increased from 46.2% in 1994 to 51.5% in 2004. The gender ratio in Yemen is 104, with some governorates having a higher proportion of species due to urbanization (male than more than female), employment opportunities, or male labor migration. The Central Statistical Agency predicts that population growth will remain high over the next 20 years, with a natural increase rate of 3.01%. The proportion of married people in the population is higher for both sexes, possibly due to increased living costs and lack of adequate housing.

Corpus-Based Diachronic Study of WAR Metaphor in Indonesian Political Discourse

The use of metaphor in political discourse is pervasive. One of the common source domain used in political metaphor is of WAR source domain. The increasing use of WAR metaphor reflects the intensity of the political situation. This paper examines the diachronic used of WAR metaphor in Indonesian Political Discourse. The aim is to analyze the use of the WAR source domain of metaphor used to speak about the Indonesian Political Situation and to compare the use of the metaphor before and after the direct election system is in effect (in 2004). The data are taken from 1896 news articles related to the political situation dan political coalition, that spans from 1980 to 2020 in Tempo online magazine. The study is corpus-based with The Conceptual Metaphor Framework of Lakoff and Johnson used as the theoretical background. The data analysis is conducted in two stages, first by quantitative analysis using Antconc Corpus Concordance Software to measure the frequency of WAR metaphor used to speak about Political situation and the second is the qualitative analysis to evaluate the change and the development of metaphor use. The result of the study should reflect how the political change that occurred in Indonesia can be reflected through the language in particular reflected from the metaphor used to speak about the political condition. The finding shows that there are three categories of diachronic change of WAR metaphorical expression: the first is the terms that have been used metaphorically even before 1998 (reformation era); the second is the terms that are recorded in use as a metaphor after 1998 and the last is the metaphorical expressions that are recorded in use before 1998 but have not been recorded after that.

Finding the Next Successor: Visual Message in Caricature Image

Caricature is a form of visual communication wherein messages are conveyed through exaggerated and often humorous distortions of characters, serving as a critique of societal issues. Caricature often serves to critique various aspects of society, including social, cultural, economic, legal, and political conditions. Similarly, the political landscape surrounding the 2024 general election has intensified, fostering active and diverse discussions through both direct and indirect media channels. Mass media visualizes the very busy pros and cons of the Indonesian future successors. The proponents and the supported people are arguing and the one that can represent them will be the leader of government in 2024-2029. Funny, amusing, and intriguing caricature images in National Mass Media are interesting to study to see how the interpretation on the form of a caricature object is using the meaningful visual signs. This research was limited to caricature images by a cartoonist, Kang Yuyun, that was published in TEMPO National mass media in January-June 2023. The object of illustrative image was limited using a purposive sample that is considered representing the objective of research. The data mining was carried out through observation, interview, document, and literature. Observation was conducted directly in Tempo’s Office, Jakarta; interview was conducted online with the cartoonist; document included the caricature images that have been published on Sunday; and literature came from scientific works such as journal, proceeding, and books. All data were collected to be validated using triangulation and then analyzed using Roland Barthes’ semiotic theory about denotation, connotation, and myth. The findings reveal that Kang Yuyun’s caricature images in TEMPO mass media during the 2024 General Election depict three groups supporting Ganjar Pranowo, Prabowo Subianto, and Anis Bawesdan as potential successors, emphasizing unity in nation-building and promotion. Keywords: caricature, mass media, the successor, semiotics

Subnational Environmental Policy: Trends and Issues

Policies relevant to many key sociological processes are often subnational, enacted at the regional, state/provincial, and/or local levels. This applies notably in the politics of the environmental state, where public and private subnational environmental policies (SNEPs) have major consequences for managing climate change, addressing environmental injustices, regulating land uses, greening energy markets, limiting pollution, and much more. While sociologists focus more on national policies, diverse sociological contributions emphasize the importance of SNEPs and their origins, diffusion, implementation, and sources of backlash. We begin by providing a typology of SNEPs. Next, we highlight not only environmental sociology (with its particular attention to climate change and energy) but also the sociologies of social movements, politics, the economy, science, risk, and organizations, which have each offered unique perspectives. Finally, we outline an agenda for how sociologists can further elaborate a distinctive perspective that highlights inequality, valuation, diffusion, scale shifts, and venue-shopping up to national and global policy systems.

Druzification from below: The case of Arameans in the north Israel

AbstractThis article sheds new light on the Aramean movement in northern Israel, drawing from studies on nationalism, racialisation, ethnic conflict and minority mobilisation. In 2014, Israel allowed members of several churches to identify as Aramean. The pivotal role in the Aramean minority's distancing of itself from the Arab identity was played by the Israeli Christian Aramaic Association (ICAA). Specifying and partially adapting Yusri Hazran's concept of ‘Druzification’, meaning the Israelis' conscious policy of minoritising indigenous populations and encouraging their conscription to the army, the term ‘Druzification from below’ is proposed to stress the bottom‐up character of the Aramean movement in the north of the country as well as the agency of Middle Eastern Christians. My general standpoint is that ‘Druzification from below’ can be perceived as an adaptive strategy—a survival response to structural political conditions and urbicidal practices of the ethnocratic state and adaptation to external threats.

Dalit Consciousness and Voice of Resistance in Pabitra Sunar’s Yugako Āwāj

The article explores how Nepali literature written on Dalit subjects and issues portrays the socio-cultural, political and economic disparity and injustice experienced by Dalits; and, how the literature expresses dissatisfaction, resistance and protest against it. The article basically aims to explore Dalit consciousness and voice of resistance expressed in poems. For this purpose, the researcher has studied Pabitra Sunar’s anthology of poems “Yugako Āwāj [Voice of the Era] from the concept of class consciousness connecting with Dalit consciousness. Her poems mainly express the agony, pain, suffering, inequality, injustice, discrimination, exploitation and oppression; and, also expresses hope, expectation and revolt for rights, equality, justice, freedom and dignity of Dalits. Fundamentally, the poems portray Nepalese society, socio-cultural, political and economic status of Dalits, and, present the right path for socio-cultural liberation of Dalits. The poems also plea the entire Dalits to revolt against caste system for overall transformation. Moreover, the binary appositions such as pessimism and optimism, dark and light, rejection and acceptance, fear and braveness, discrimination and equality faced by Dalits in society; and, Dalits’ wish for liberation and dignity are the tenets in Sunar’s poems. The researcher has adopted qualitative approach with explorative and analytical methods while studying the poems.

Ignorance and Environmental History: The Opening of an Arctic Offshore Oil Frontier, 1968–1976

Ignorance holds untapped explanatory power for environmental history, in the Arctic and beyond. I define ignorance as a state of limited knowledge, held by groups, and produced through social processes. The case study is the opening of an oil frontier in the Canadian Beaufort Sea between 1968 and 1976. Drawing from a growing body of scholarship on ignorance, as well as newly available governmental and oil industry records, I review three concepts environmental historians can use to analyse the production of ignorance. These concepts are: proprietary knowledge, selective transmission and undone research. Taken together, these concepts make visible a set of political, economic and environmental conditions that allowed ignorance to shape the approval of the first offshore drilling programme in the Canadian Beaufort Sea. Ultimately, this case study demonstrates that ignorance – like its cousins doubt or uncertainty – has been a resource that extractive industries and governmental regulators have manipulated to navigate evolving requirements of environmental planning.

Current and future development of thermal grids in Switzerland: an organizational perspective

IntroductionThermal grids are key to decarbonizing heating and cooling. However, their development is a complex socio-technical process. This study aims to (1) understand the thermal grid ecosystem’s development under changing political, economic and cultural frame conditions, (2) elicit actors’ perception of options for future development, and (3) identify concrete problem situations for the future development of thermal grids and describe how to address them.MethodsWe draw on 18 semi-structured interviews with decision-makers in utilities, municipal administrations, planning and engineering companies and intermediary organizations.ResultsWith increased strategic importance of thermal grids, the ecosystem has been in a phase of rapid growth and professionalization in the last 10–15 years. This is reflected in a rapid increase in the number of grids, but also in capability and capacity building and greater quality standards. This transformation has been supported by a resource pool (e.g., knowledge base, capacities and capabilities, networks or decision-support tools), built partly through the value network’s activities and partly through purposeful orchestration by associations, authorities, utilities and other actors. While policy developments, energy price fluctuations and changes in customer perceptions spurred demand, thermal grid development is limited by supply-side constraints, especially a skill shortage. Four interrelated problem situations were identified: (1) Municipalities lack the resources to manage the implementation of their energy strategies. (2) The modernization of thermal grids and integration of low-carbon heat sources entails high transaction costs. (3) The implementation of thermal grids is subject to delays and quality risks, with consequences for the timely achievement of decarbonization goals. (4) Customers face uncertainty on available options, as well as on the systemic impacts of their decisions.DiscussionBased on current practices, suggestions by the interviewees, as well as a comparison with the international literature, we identify four development areas to address these problem situations: (1) Empower and support municipalities. (2) Manage the scarcity of qualified workforce. (3) Leverage digital technology for the planning, realization and operation of thermal grids. (4) Pilot technological and organizational innovations together. This complements the set of previously suggested measures to support the development of thermal grids, which focused strongly on technical and regulatory aspects.

Экономические потери в системе обеспечения экономической безопасности хозяйствующего субъекта и государства

The article presents an analysis of the losses of the economic system under the influence of threats to economic security. It is concluded that the absence of economic losses cannot be considered as a characteristic of the security of the state of the economic system. It is proposed to divide the economic losses caused by threats and dangers, it is necessary to divide them into: those related to countering the threat to economic security; those related to damage from exposure to the threat. The economic losses associated with countering the threat to economic security are divided into: losses necessary to contain the threat at the lowest possible level for existing socio-economic and political conditions, and losses exceeding the amount necessary

State attachment and gubernatorial approval

AbstractObjectiveThe purpose of this article is to examine what drives individual attitudes toward their governor with a focus on the role of place attachment as a means of diffuse support.MethodsUsing original surveys from March and May 2020, we test the role of place attachment in explaining gubernatorial approval.ResultsWe find state or place attachment is a strong predictor of gubernatorial approval especially among individuals who live in a state with a governor from the other party.ConclusionState attachment can be an important and unique influence on political attitudes toward state politics.

“Broken Home”: (De)constructing the Moral Standards of Mobility for Atlanta’s Early Black Public Housing Families

The public housing program was designed as a stepping-stone into upward socioeconomic mobility when the first developments were constructed for White and Black households in the 1930s. White residents were able to save and move into private housing with greater speed than Black residents, who faced both external and internal constraints on their socioeconomic status. As a result of this decreased mobility, scholars and policymakers soon associated public housing developments with impoverished Black containment, categorizing it as the home of the underclass and those who are stuck in place. This article employs a Du Boisian approach to understand the categorical differences and political economic conditions shaping mobility rates among Atlanta’s early Black public housing families. Using historical documents and approximately 40 years of administrative data collected from the first Black public housing development in Atlanta, Georgia by housing managers, Du Bois, and a group of research assistants from Atlanta University, this article examines how internal and external constraints shaped Black tenant mobility. It demonstrates how housing administrators and their actions shaped eviction rates—and by default, public housing’s ability to advance Black tenant mobility—through elite housing managers’ moral judgments of impoverished Black families.

The Making of the Celt. Ethnogenesis, Culture and Politics in the Atlantic Arc

The theme of Celts and Celticism has attracted fierce controversy over more than two centuries. Passing over the question of ancient origins, this article places the birth of Celticism in the modern period, in line with current understandings of nationalism. Examining the construction of the Celt in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Galicia and Cornwall, it traces a movement from culture into politics in the course of the nineteenth century. Political pan-Celticism was ultimately a failure not because it was ‘artificial’ but because of the political conditions of the times and the force of competing projects. Like other nationalisms it relies on myth and tradition but these are social realities not easily to be dismissed by appeal to scientific history. After two hundred years, moreover, Celticism has a history of its own and continues to resonate both in culture and in politics.

LIVABILITY AND FUTURES STUDIES OF WORN-OUT URBAN TEXTURES: SCENARIO ANALYSIS FOR EVALUATING THE LIVABILITY SYSTEM AND ACHIEVING SUSTAINABILITY

Urban worn-out textures, due to their ancient and historically valuable physical structures, exhibit low adaptability to urban developments and advancements. Tehran, as a city with a rich historical background, also boasts considerable worn-out textures. Due to economic, geographical, and political conditions, a large population resides in these textures. In this regard, the present research aims to investigate the livability status of residents, identify key indicators, and design scenarios in the worn-out textures of Tehran city. This paper proposes a new approach to MicMac that promotes driving forces to scenarios. The results indicate that the livability of residents in worn-out textures of Tehran city, particularly in central regions, is in undesirable conditions. Furthermore, the analysis of the MicMac matrix showed that housing prices, residents’ income, investment, and an increase in economic activities, as well as the role of urban management, are driving forces that have a vital impact on the livability of residents in worn-out textures. These driving forces have depicted three scenarios for the livability of worn-out textures in Tehran city until the year 2032.

An Overview of the Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques Application to Detect Changes in the Surface Area of Water Bodies in Iraq

The use of Remote Sensing data in monitoring water bodies and reservoirs is a new and advanced approach that helps to study large areas covered by water in a short time and at a reasonable amount compared to traditional methods. Accordingly, the Remote Sensing technique integrated with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) has been used in several studies to monitor changes in water surface body area locally and regionally. In this study, several studies in Iraq were reviewed, using Remote Sensing techniques with the help of GIS to detect changes in the areas covered by the water bodies using satellite images captured in different periods. Natural and artificial lakes represent a large proportion of the water bodies in Iraq, including eight (8) lakes distributed in different regions of Iraq. An evaluation of the hydrological system of the studied water bodies showed that the changes in the area and size of natural and artificial lakes are affected by political, economic, and climatic conditions as the areas increase and decrease over years.

Adding Insult to Injury

Should the government censor dangerous anti-vaccination propoganda? Should it restrict the praise of terrorist groups, or speech intended to promote discriminatory attitudes? In other words, should the government curb the advocacy of dangerous ideas and actions (i.e. 'harmful advocacy'), or should the government take a more permissive approach?  Strong free speech supporters argue that citizens should be free to engage in and to hear harmful advocacy, arguing that restrictions are deeply objectionable at best, and, at worst, wholly impermissible. To support their position, strong free speech supporters have offered a wide range of arguments and ideas. One of the most interesting arguments revolves around the idea that restrictions on harmful advocacy are deeply insulting to citizens. The worry, broadly understood, is that this kind of censorship is demeaning, treats citizens as though they are stupid, or as though they are children.  As such, even when censorship is effective in preventing harms to citizens, it nonetheless comes at the significant political cost of failing to properly respect the citizenry at large. By contrast, so the thought goes, an alternative political scheme that prohibits censorship, or permits it only in exceptional cases, does a better job of respecting citizens as independent, rational, morally responsible agents. This alternative political system may, sometimes, be less effective at preventing speech harms. But it is a political system where citizens can stand tall and hold their heads high. In this paper, I consider and reject three versions of the worry that censorship is insulting. §1 explores the idea that censorship is insulting qua involving a negative appraisal of the citizens being interfered with. The key idea here is that censorship involves a lack of what Stephen Darwall terms ‘appraisal respect’, insofar as the government is suggesting that citizens cannot be trusted to manage their own beliefs and intentions. Drawing on the work of Thomas Nagel, §2 explores the idea that censorship diminishes the political status of citizens. Finally, §3 explores the suggestion that censorship is incompatible with a full appreciation of the thinking nature of citizens, and thus involves a lack of what Darwall would term ‘recognition respect’. The paper argues that censorship is not necessarily premised upon an insulting view of the citizenry. On the contrary, it argues that the best kind of censorship stems from a rich appreciation of the diverse range of capabilities, needs, vulnerabilities, and responsibilities of citizens, as well as the need for co-operation between citizens if societal flourishing is going to be achieved on a large scale. Granted, such a vision places an emphasis on the imperfections and liabilities of citizens – at least when compared to the rather solitary, highly intellectual creature one sometimes finds in the philosophical literature. Still, such a vision of citizens as imperfect falls well short of being genuinely insulting. To err is human. And there’s nothing insulting about being treated like a human.

A Study on the Regional Evolution of the Hefei Political and Cultural New District Skyline Based on Exploratory Factor Analysis and Semantic Segmentation

The general population’s assessment and perception of a city can be influenced by its skyline, which is one of its representatives. This paper uses semantic segmentation and exploratory factor analysis to conduct a study from two different perspectives, aiming to analyse the development and current situation of the skyline of Hefei’s political and cultural new district. By collecting pictures of the skyline of the New Administrative and Cultural District, the New Administrative and Cultural District of Hefei’s skyline is being studied for overall changes using the semantic segmentation method, and to evaluate the quality of the skyline in various years, the entropy weight–TOPSIS is employed. Through the literature investigation and creation status of the new political and cultural district, the index system is scientifically formulated to conduct a questionnaire survey, and its reliability and validity are tested. This study is conducted with exploratory factor analysis of factors that are vital in the city skyline. The results of this study show that (1) after the semantic segmentation of the pictures, it is found that the proportion of buildings and the proportion of vegetation are both rising; the proportion of buildings tends to level off after 2018, and the proportion of vegetation shows a uniform increase. In the relative proximity ranking, the overall trend is increasing, and the skyline is ranked first in 2024. (2) Two variables were identified based on the findings of the exploratory factor analysis: ‘skyline value’ and ‘neighbourhood ecological quality’. The results of this study show that the skyline of Hefei’s New Administrative and Cultural District in 2024 is the best overall, and that the skyline of the New Administrative and Cultural District has developed into one of the city images of Hefei, and that its optimisation can be considered in terms of the “quality of the surrounding ecological environment”.

Just transformations through resilience experiments? Comparing policy rationales and narratives of the Global South and North in the Resilient Cities Network

AbstractThe Resilient Cities Network, formerly known as the 100 Resilient Cities, supports the development of local resilience policies in partaking cities from around the globe. Various policies in the network are an example of an upcoming trend where experiments are increasingly conducted in the urban space to shape governance. Experiments in this context are purposeful interventions to increase resilience through learning and the temporal and spatial diffusion of results. Experimentation and resilience are highlighted in the literature on political ecology for policies presumably leading to urban transformations. Both approaches face strikingly similar critiques, namely that related rationales and narratives frequently maintain the political and economic status quo and reproduce socially unjust urban realities. However, they are rarely examined together and empirical findings are missing when it comes to comparative research; particularly between the Global South and North.Against this background, this paper asks: Which role plays social justice in rationales and narratives of resilience experiments in Global South and Global North cities? I examine experimental policy actions in Global South and North cities of the Resilient Cities Network (N = 112) qualitatively through an analytic lens that links a social justice understanding to the setting, agency, and design of resilience experiments. Based on this analysis, I compare the results to explore emerging patterns of the role given to social justice in urban resilience experimentation across cities of the Global South and North. The findings show that narratives in Global North cities revolve stronger around recognising social justice, but Global South cities put more emphasis on marginalised groups and learning mechanisms that potentially foster social justice through output legitimacy.

'Laughing at us'

That Donald J. Trump won the US Presidential Election of 2016 defied the expectations of almost all seasoned observers of the US political system. Scholarly explanations stress structural factors that produced a substantial cohort of identity-vulnerable voters in tandem with Trump’s personal populist appeal. Trump benefitted from his political outsider status, celebrity familiarity, heteronormative masculinity, and unconventional rhetorical style including humour, all of which were amplified (and also mocked) by extensive mainstream news media coverage. Trump’s distinctive political use of the social media micro-blogging platform Twitter (now known as X) in engaging those cohorts has also been emphasized. The research presented here sits at the confluence of prior scholarly work on structural causes of identity vulnerability, on contestation involving humour, and on the enhanced political usage of Twitter. It examines the historical record of Trump’s tweets and re-tweets to see if and how the demarcation of his ‘humour brand’ affectively engaged his substantial Twitter followers and may thereby have contributed to his electoral success in 2016.

Introduction ‐ Anthropology and the security encounter: Toward an abolitionist anthropology in the age of permanent war

AbstractAnthropologists need to grapple politically with the ways in which security, war and militarization shape our fields of study. This special section of American Anthropologist, “Forever War: Anthropology and the Global War on Terror,” brings together scholars studying, writing and enacting their politics amidst the immense socio‐political impacts of the Global War on Terror. In this introductory article, I offer the concept of “the security encounter” to describe the complex and inherently political conditions of doing anthropology within the current conjuncture, as well as a provocation for anthropologists to adopt an abolitionist approach to security, militarization, and permanent war which increasingly structure our lives and work.

Policy learning from evidence during polycrises: a case of EU environmental policy

Despite their increasing frequency and magnitude, research on how polycrises influence policymaking has been remarkably scarce. In this article, we approach this issue from an evidence-based policy learning perspective. We explore how the polycrisis involving the progressive intersections between the climate change crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the energy crisis influenced evidence-based policy learning underlying the European Union’s climate policymaking. Our findings show that at the initial phases of the polycrisis, interdisciplinary scientific evidence was employed to depoliticize the climate change crisis and facilitate a paradigmatic policy shift. Yet, as relatively faster burning crises overlapped, such evidence played an increasingly substantiating role for previously established institutional choices, and then its role further diminished as more crises overlapped. These findings offer a more robust theoretical understanding of evidence-based policy learning and its contribution to policy change within polycrises. This also draws practitioners’ attention to the need for actively re-aligning evidence-based policy learning practices as political conditions evolve during polycrises.