scholarly journals Learning How to Hope

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah M. Stitzlein
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Presidential Elections ◽  
American Identity ◽  
Political Agency ◽  
Citizen Engagement ◽  
Self Help ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
Pragmatist Philosophy

Democracy is struggling in America. Citizens increasingly feel cynical about our system and doubt they can influence public policy. Distrustful of other Americans and elected officials, some are even turning to authoritarian alternatives. Hyperpartisanship and recent contentious presidential elections have deepened political despair. While some citizens get swept up in optimism during campaign cycles, they often later find themselves frustrated with elected leaders as they wait for change. This book seeks to revive democracy by teaching citizens how to hope. Hope animates life in a democracy, moving citizens forward through new challenges, new ideas, and new experiments. The form of hope described in this book is more than just a campaign slogan or a self-help program, it is an informed call to citizen engagement that opens new possibilities for our country. Drawing on examples from life in America today and pragmatist philosophy, this book explains how schools can cultivate hope through our habits and how action in our communities can sustain hope. It shows how we can build trust, grow political agency, and shape an improved American identity through hoping together. This book provides guidance for learning how to hope in schools, universities, and civil society. It describes what hope is, why it matters to democracy, and how to teach it.

PODC 2020 Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 75-81
Author(s):  
Ahad Mirza Baig ◽  
Alkida Balliu ◽  
Peter Davies ◽  
Michal Dory
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Distributed Computing ◽  
Keynote Speaker ◽  
Lively Discussion ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
New Directions ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Distributed Machine Learning

Rachid Guerraoui was the rst keynote speaker, and he got things o to a great start by discussing the broad relevance of the research done in our community relative to both industry and academia. He rst argued that, in some sense, the fact that distributed computing is so pervasive nowadays could end up sti ing progress in our community by inducing people to work on marginal problems, and becoming isolated. His rst suggestion was to try to understand and incorporate new ideas coming from applied elds into our research, and argued that this has been historically very successful. He illustrated this point via the distributed payment problem, which appears in the context of blockchains, in particular Bitcoin, but then turned out to be very theoretically interesting; furthermore, the theoretical understanding of the problem inspired new practical protocols. He then went further to discuss new directions in distributed computing, such as the COVID tracing problem, and new challenges in Byzantine-resilient distributed machine learning. Another source of innovation Rachid suggested was hardware innovations, which he illustrated with work studying the impact of RDMA-based primitives on fundamental problems in distributed computing. The talk concluded with a very lively discussion.

scholarly journals Afforestation, reforestation and new challenges from COVID-19: Thirty-three recommendations to support civil society organizations (CSOs)

2021 ◽  
Vol 287 ◽  
pp. 112277
Author(s):  
Midhun Mohan ◽  
Hayden A. Rue ◽  
Shaurya Bajaj ◽  
G.A. Pabodha Galgamuwa ◽  
Esmaeel Adrah ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
New Challenges

How do beliefs and institutional context influence the portability of political and civil society behaviours among New Zealand return migrants?

2019 ◽  
pp. 144078331988829
Author(s):  
Louise Humpage
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Institutional Context ◽  
Personal Beliefs ◽  
Civic Duty ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Home Context ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
History Narratives

Qualitative life-history narratives investigating the portability of political and civil society beliefs/behaviours of 42 New Zealand returnees help us to understand why some citizens engage in political and civil society activities while living overseas and on return. Personal beliefs such as civic duty, rights and self-interest are strongly associated with the portability of political and civil society behaviours. Yet findings also support theories of exposure, indicating that political/civil society learning can occur across the ‘migration life course’ and challenge resistance theory arguments that a break in participation inhibits political engagement later in life. Although civil society engagement is shaped more by self-interest than altruism overall, most returnees failed to volunteer as a way of better integrating on their return as many had overseas. Thus, the ‘ home’ context can inhibit citizenship engagement, reducing the benefits New Zealand could reap from exposure to new ideas, places and people while overseas.

scholarly journals Creatividad e innovación: una destreza adquirible

10.14201/3165 ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Petra María Pérez Alonso-geta
Keyword(s):  
Key Words ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Everyday Experience ◽  
Palabras Clave ◽  
The Future ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
New Challenges

RESUMEN: ntendemos la creatividad como destreza adquirible, como un rasgo del que participan todos los seres humanos, aunque precise ser cultivada. La capacidad de ser creativo es una mezcla de conocimientos, actitudes y habilidades que se pueden conseguir mediante la práctica. Se trata de hacerse con nuevas ideas, saliendo de las rutas trazadas, por la experiencia para conseguir nuevos productos. Desde la escuela es necesario estimular la creatividad para poder afrontar los retos que hoy se plantean, en los distintos ámbitos de la realidad, dando solución a los nuevos problemas. Eeducar para la creatividad es una estrategia de futuro. Palabras clave: creatividad, innovación, educación, creencias, actitudes.ABSTRACT: This paper conceives creativity as an acquirable skill, as a trait shared by every human being. Hhowever, creativity must be developed: the ability of being creative is a blend of knowledge, attitude and skills that can only be learnt through practice. It is about having new ideas and departing from habitual pathways traced by everyday experience in order to obtain new outputs. It is essential to stimulate creativity in school in order to be able to handle efficiently today’s new challenges, which present themselves in different areas of our lives. Teaching creativity is therefore a strategy for the future. Key words: creativity, innovation, education, knowledge, attitude.SOMMAIRE: Nous définissons la créativité comme une habilité que l’on peut atteindre, comme un attribut auquel tous les êtres humains participent, même si elle a besoin d’être cultivée. La capacité d’être créatif est un mélange de connaissances, d’attitudes et d’habilités que l’on peut atteindre moyennant la pratique. Il s’agît de trouver des nouvelles idées, en sortant des chemins existants, à travers l’expérience afin d’obtenir de nouveaux produits. Dès l’école il est nécessaire de stimuler la créativité pour pouvoir affronter les défis actuels, dans les différents domaines de la réalité en apportant des solutions aux nouveaux problèmes. Eenseigner la créativité, c’est une stratégie pour l’avenir.

scholarly journals Asia`s Role in Internet Governance

2009 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-142
Author(s):  
Park Y. J.
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Internet Governance ◽  
The Public ◽  
Policy Negotiation ◽  
Global Public Policy

Most stakeholders from Asia have not actively participated in the global Internet governance debate. This debate has been shaped by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers(ICANN) since 198 and the UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF) since 2006. Neither ICANN nor IGF are well received as global public policy negotiation platforms by stakeholders in Asia, but more and more stakeholders in Europe and the United States take both platforms seriously. Stakeholders in Internet governance come from the private sector and civil society as well as the public sector.

scholarly journals Trust and responsibility: the regional dimension

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 35-41
Author(s):  
Evgeniya A. Kogay
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Interpersonal Trust ◽  
Self Organization ◽  
Sustainable Society ◽  
Social Partnership ◽  
Trust Relationships ◽  
Its Regions ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Different Levels

The issue of developing strategic trust at different levels of self-organization of territorial communities gains increasing importance in Russia. This article considers trust and responsibility as integral components of forming a sustainable society and implementation of modernization processes. The author turns to the problem of the relationship between these concepts and reveals trends in the dynamics of trust relationships in Russia and its regions. This article relies on the results of comparative sociological and cultural studies in the Tomsk (2015), Kursk (2016), and Tyumen (2016) regions, as well as in Russia overall (2015). The comparison of results from sociological researches shows the characteristics of institutional and interpersonal trust. The author notes that the new challenges to the development of society associated with the tasks of transition to system modernization create an increased demand for strengthening social partnership and the establishment of qualitative and constructive public policy. There is a trend to activate the position of citizens in defending their rights, as well as in helping vulnerable categories of the population. In conclusion, the author shows practical steps of individual regions on the way of creation of solidary society.

scholarly journals ‘Moving life stories tell us just why politics matters’: Personal narratives in tabloid anti-austerity campaigns

Journalism ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (10) ◽  
pp. 1346-1363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jen Birks
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Welfare Reform ◽  
Life Stories ◽  
Personal Narratives ◽  
Political Agency ◽  
The Political ◽  
Civil Society Organisations

This article examines the use of personal narratives in two tabloid newspaper campaigns against a controversial welfare reform popularly known as the ‘bedroom tax’. It aims first to evaluate whether the personal narratives operate as political testimony to challenge government accounts of welfare reform and dominant stereotypes of benefits claimants, and second to assess the potential for and limits to progressive advocacy in popular journalism. The study uses content analysis of 473 articles over the course of a year in the Daily Mirror and Sunday People newspapers, and qualitative analysis of a sub-set of 113 articles to analyse the extent to which the campaign articles extrapolated from the personal to the general, and the role of ‘victim–witnesses’ in articulating their own subjectivity and political agency. The analysis indicates that both newspapers allowed affected individuals to express their own subjectivity to challenge stereotypes, but it was civil society organisations and opinion columnists who most explicitly extrapolated from the personal to the political. Collectively organised benefits claimants were rarely quoted, and there was some evidence of ventriloquisation of the editorial voice in the political criticisms of victim–witnesses. However, a campaigning columnist in the Mirror more actively empowered some of those affected to speak directly to politicians. This indicates the value of campaigning journalism when it is truly engaged in solidarity with those affected, rather than instrumentalising victim–witnesses to further the newspapers’ campaign goals.

New Modes of Governance and Democratic Accountability

2011 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 126-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrienne Héritier ◽  
Dirk Lehmkuhl
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Stakeholder Involvement ◽  
Strict Sense ◽  
Democratic Accountability ◽  
Public Policy Making ◽  
Multi Stakeholder ◽  
Modes Of Governance ◽  
New Modes Of Governance

AbstractThis article raises the question of the link between new modes of governance and democratic accountability. Our definition of new modes of governance as modes refers to public policy-making that includes private actors and/or public policy-making by public actors that takes place outside legislative arenas, and which focuses on delimited sectoral or functional areas. We identify three different ways in which new modes of governance can be subjected to democratic control: parliamentary control, multi-stakeholder involvement and control through the public sphere and civil society at large. Building on a number of the illustrative insights from various empirical projects, we find that, in our cases at least, new modes of governance did not have a negative effect on existing patterns of democratic accountability. At the same time, neither multi-stakeholder policies nor the participation of civil society guarantee democratic accountability in the strict sense. We provide some evidence to the effect that, if institutionally linked to democratically elected governmental bodies – meaning, in this context, the European Parliament – it is more likely that negative externalities deriving from public policy-making in functionally segmented arenas of the European Union's multilevel polity will be dealt with in a more systematic way.

The Protective Shields

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kinda Mohamadieh
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Crowding Out ◽  
Arab Region ◽  
Arab Uprisings ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
Human Rights Movement ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Challenges

This chapter examines the various roles undertaken by civil society organizations (CSOs), or nongovernmental organizations, in the Arab region and their implications for collaboration between CSOs and the United Nations, with particular emphasis on how CSOs figure in policy debates and the human rights movement. CSOs in the Arab region, mainly those working on policy and legislative issues, have been engaged with UN-led processes and conferences since the 1992 Earth Summit, and including the 1995 Summit on Social Development and the 2000 Millennium Summit. However, as some UN agencies, driven by a quest for funding, have moved into programmatic interventions, tensions have sometimes emerged between CSOs and UN agencies when some UN agencies have ended up potentially competing with CSOs for funding or crowding out the space available for CSOs. This chapter first traces the history of CSO-UN interactions in the Arab region before discussing the new challenges and possibilities raised during the period of the Arab uprisings.

Transforming Democracy through ICT

2008 ◽  
pp. 2441-2449
Author(s):  
Andy Williamson
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Local Scale ◽  
Citizen Engagement ◽  
Global And Local ◽  
Do So

This article explores the potential of ICT to be used to transform the processes of citizen engagement such that a citizen-centred approach to e-democracy becomes both viable and desirable. It will do so by exploring three tensions relating to democracy and civil society: first that participation in traditional democracy is falling, yet new technologies are mobilising citizens on a global and local scale (such as antiglobalisation protests and electoral protests in the Philippines and Spain); second, ICT increases the technocracy of government but also offers citizens a chance to become closer to it; and third, that macro strategies for ICT access are not enough to remove localised exclusion.

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