The Consequences of Some Angry Re-Tweets: Another Medium is the Message

2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-293
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Martin
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
The Public ◽  
Rigid Structure ◽  
State And Society ◽  
Oil Rents ◽  
Gulf States ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Public Sphere

AbstractMost research on the Gulf states focuses on oil and its impact on state power. The literature on rentier theory almost unanimously agrees that oil rents buy off citizens and lead to socio-political stagnation. Massive protests and government attempts to address citizen demands in Kuwait between 2011 and 2013 call into question that narrative. Since those protests, the Kuwaiti government has taken steps to increase its representation of public officials and accessibility in the public sphere, including by expanding the government's presence on Instagram. How have Kuwaiti citizens voiced their opinions to government accounts? And how has the government responded to online criticism?This essay looks at the pattern of interactions between the state and Kuwaiti citizens on Twitter and Instagram using a content analysis of government accounts. The findings raise questions about the validity of the payoff thesis and understandings of consent and acquiescence. My analysis illustrates that there is a public dialogue that moves beyond the rigid structure of state and society by which the literature has traditionally understood Gulf rentier societies.

Religion and Values in Contemporary Africa: Christian Interpretations of Vice/Virtue Discourses in Ghana

2021 ◽  
pp. 239693932110002
Author(s):  
J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu ◽  
Vivian Dzokoto ◽  
Annabella Osei Tutu ◽  
Abraham Kenin ◽  
Amanda Stahl
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Christian Mission ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere

Despite the popularity of religion in African settings such as Ghana, reports of moral decline abound. This article reviews traditional, mission, and Christian theological perspectives of morality in Ghana. Using interviews, surveys, and content analysis of vehicle slogans, it examines what Ghanaians today consider to be values in terms of virtues and vices. It explores implications for Christian mission involvement in shaping morality in education and the public sphere.

Challenging representations of Muslims and cultural métissage in the ethnic comedies L’Italien (2010) and Mohamed Dubois (2013)

2021 ◽  
pp. 095715582110091
Author(s):  
Ramona Mielusel
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Social Critique ◽  
The Public ◽  
French Culture ◽  
French People ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Legislative Measures

In this article, I am looking at two popular ‘ethnic’ comedies, L’Italien (2010) and Mohamed Dubois (2013), that promote dialogue and conviviality between Franco-Maghrebi and Franco-French people in France while questioning the societal feasibility of legislative measures of inclusiveness, visibility and equality of chances promoted by the government in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Considering some challenges in the representations, the comedies offer, at times, a social critique of certain stereotypical views on Islam and the destiny of Muslims on French soil, but they conclude in an optimistic tone supporting the idea that there is cultural métissage in France and that Muslims and Christians do mix in today’s diverse France. The popularity of these comedies attests to the fact that there is a need to bring up the issues of Islam in France and of the cohabitation between Muslims and Christian French citizens in the public sphere. I suggest however that while the Franco-Maghrebi’s ‘essentialist identity’ is challenged in the films, there are still neo-colonialist tensions in the artistic productions that entail ambivalence towards the Muslim characters. In a Franco-French dominated film-consuming culture, the Franco-Maghrebi characters are still subject to mimicry, which consistently maintains their subordinate position in the French culture.

scholarly journals Politics and everyday life in Serbia in 2005: Views of politics, change of social system, the public sphere

2005 ◽  
pp. 45-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivana Spasic
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Social System ◽  
The Political ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Political Scene

The paper offers an analysis of the interview data collected in the project "Politics and everyday life: Three years later" in terms of three main topics: attitudes to the political sphere, change of social system, and the democratic public sphere. The analysis focuses on ambivalences expressed in the responses which, under the surface of overall disappointment and discontent, may contain preserved results of the previously achieved "social learning" and their positive potentials. The main objective was to examine to what extent the processes of political maturation of citizens, identified in the 2002 study, have continued. After pointing to a number of shifts in people?s views of politics which generally do not contradict the tendencies outlined in 2002 (such as deemotionalization and depersonalization of politics, insistence on efficiency of public officials and on a clearer articulation of positions on the political scene), it is argued that the process of rationalization of political culture has not stopped, but it manifests itself differently in changed circumstances. The republican euphoria of 2002 has been replaced by resignation, with a stronger individualist orientation and a commitment to professional achievement.

The Necropolitics of Documents and the Slow Death of Prisoners in Turkey

2019 ◽  
pp. 97-117
Author(s):  
Başak Can
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Health Condition ◽  
State Violence ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
The Public ◽  
Penal Institutions ◽  
Multiple State ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Public Sphere

The government used medico-legal documentation of prisoners’ health condition to solve the biopolitical crisis in penal institutions immediately after the end of death fast (2000-2007) and released hundreds of hunger strikers, who suffered from incurable conditions. That the state turned a political crisis into a medical one using the illness clause had unprecedented consequences for how claims are made in the political sphere. Human rights activists, Kurdish and leftist politicians are now using the plight of ill prisoners to make political arguments in the public sphere. The health conditions of political prisoners, specifically the use of the illness clause has thus emerged as one of the most contentious fields in the encounters between the state and its opponents. This chapter examines how temporality works as an instrument of necropolitics through the slow production and circulation of the medico-legal bureaucratic documents that are produced through encounters with multiple state officials. I argue, first, that medico-legal processes surrounding the detainees are mediated through the discretionary sovereign acts of multiple state officials, including but not limited to physicians, and second, that legal medicine as a technology of state violence is central to understanding the intertwined histories of sovereignty and biopolitics in Turkey.

Social Media and Marriage Equality in Australia: The Media Roles in the Public Sphere and the Agenda-Setting

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Yuhanyin Ma
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Marriage Equality ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Same Sex Marriage ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Public Sphere

<p align="justify">Marriage equality or the equal status of same-sex marriage has undergone a rather tough road in Australia, involving diverging opinions in parties at the state and federal levels and constitutional amendments. It appears that people in power set the agenda on the legalization of same-sex marriage. However, it cannot be denied that social media played an almost decisive role in this process because it enabled the gathering of massive public opinion to pressure the government to make changes. To be specific, social media or social networking sites offered platforms for people concerned to share reports about the progress of foreign countries in legalizing same-sex marriage, to express their opinions and to launch campaigns in support of their beliefs. This essay explores the role that social media played in the legalization of marriage equality movement in Australia from the perspectives of the public sphere theory and the agenda-setting theory.</p>

scholarly journals Niqab in Indonesia: Identity and Nationalism of the Female Students in Palopo

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-134
Author(s):  
Andul Pirol ◽  
Aswan Aswan
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Female Students ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Politics Of Identity ◽  
The Public ◽  
Life Problems ◽  
Government Role ◽  
Daily Behavior ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Public Sphere

This research discusses the politics of identity that are increasingly strengthening in the public sphere. This phenomenon grows through the religious sentiment circulated massively on social media and is also evident in dress and daily behavior. This article wants to see: (1) the extent to which the identity of female students that wearing niqab influences the national insight, (2) how their perspectives and attitudes in national and state life. As a result, the sentiment of niqab female students' identity grew more vital in the public sphere. It is directly proportional to their low acceptance of government leaders of different religions. The government role is also considered lacking in helping them to overcome the life problems they face. Interestingly, the position of the Pancasila in the group gaining acceptance is relatively high. The primary data of this study through a questionnaire with the techniques of purposive sampling of 30 female students that wearing the niqab from various religious organisations spread across many campuses in the City of Palopo.

scholarly journals Peran Pelayanan Pastoral bagi Ibu yang Mengalami Kekerasan Dalam Rumah Tangga

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-182
Author(s):  
Derselli P. Silitonga
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Domestic Violence ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Pastoral Care ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Literature Study ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Public Sphere

Abstract. Domestic violence is an issue that is considered a private household problem so it cannot merely be handled by the government or the authorities. For this reason, this study aimed to describe the important role of pastoral care in dealing with domestic violence. The method used in this research was descriptive qualitative research method. Data was collected through observation, interview and literature study and analyzed in depth and described descriptively. The result was that pastoral care is an effective way to deal with the problem of domestic violence by not bringing it into the public sphere and creating peace between husband and wife.Abstrak. Kekerasan dalam rumah tangga merupakan isu yang dianggap sebagai persoalan privat rumah tangga sehingga tidak begitu saja dapat ditangani oleh pemerintah atau pihak yang berwajib. Untuk itu, penelitian ini bertujuan untuk memberikan gambaran pentingnya peran pelayanan pastoral dalam menangani masalah kekerasan dalam rumah tangga. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah metode penelitian deskriptif kualitatif. Data-data dikumpulkan melalui observasi, wawancara dan studi kepustakaan serta dianalisa secara mendalam dan diuraikan secara deskriptif. Hasilnya adalah pelayanan pastoral merupakan cara yang efektif untuk menangani masalah kekerasan dalam rumah tangga oleh karena tidak membawanya ke ranah publik dan menciptakan perdamaian di antara suami istri.

scholarly journals Frontier zones of public policy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.I. Soloviev
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Relations ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Social Orientation ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
State And Society ◽  
State Public Policy ◽  
Analytical Correction ◽  
The Public Sphere

Referring to the traditional interpretations of “public policy”, the author substantiates the need for analytical correction of its content on the basis of identifying universal parameters of publicity, reflecting a special format of open (public) relations between the state and society. In this context, there are three social spaces of the public sphere, each of which determines the possibilities of implementing the course of citizens' participation in the management and strengthening the social orientation of government policy. The features of the implementation of such a variant of state public policy in modern Russia are briefly outlined.

scholarly journals Penumbangan Rezim melalui Gerakan Masyarakat Dunia Maya (Media Sosial) di Timur Tengah

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 20-29
Author(s):  
Taufik Taufik
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
The Public ◽  
Middle East Countries ◽  
Community Movements ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Revolution

Social media has become a new alternative in the field of communication in the circle of people's lives in the Middle East which offers freedom especially in terms of self-expression, something that has been hindered by the censorship of anti-critic dictatorial regimes. Unpredictably, the expression of disappointment expressed by Middle Eastern society towards the government through social media can be a lighter revolution that hit the Middle East countries in 2011. The purpose of this research is to know, explore, and describe some of the links between the revolution, the public sphere, and the movement of society through social media in the Middle East. A revolution in Tunisia in 2011 has been a generator of community movements in overthrowing the muscle rigid regimes in some Middle Eastern countries such as Egypt and Libya.

The Contentious Public Sphere

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ya-Wen Lei
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
The State ◽  
The Internet ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Critique ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
Uncertain Future ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Legal Subjects

Since the mid-2000s, public opinion and debate in China have become increasingly common and consequential, despite the ongoing censorship of speech and regulation of civil society. How did this happen? This book shows how the Chinese state drew on law, the media, and the Internet to further an authoritarian project of modernization, but in so doing, inadvertently created a nationwide public sphere in China—one the state must now endeavor to control. The book examines the influence this unruly sphere has had on Chinese politics and the ways that the state has responded. It shows that the development of the public sphere in China has provided an unprecedented forum for citizens to influence the public agenda, demand accountability from the government, and organize around the concepts of law and rights. It demonstrates how citizens came to understand themselves as legal subjects, how legal and media professionals began to collaborate in unexpected ways, and how existing conditions of political and economic fragmentation created unintended opportunities for political critique, particularly with the rise of the Internet. The emergence of this public sphere—and its uncertain future—is a pressing issue with important implications for the political prospects of the Chinese people. The book offers new possibilities for thinking about the transformation of state–society relations.

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