The road to 2020

2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-72
Author(s):  
Mervyn Kohler

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how the political parties will approach older people in the run-up to the General Election. Design/methodology/approach – A review of what was announced in the autumn party conferences, and what older people and their organisations have been pressing for. Findings – A personal and subjective article, the conclusion is that there will be a lot in the forthcoming General Election of importance to older people. Originality/value – The perspective is entirely personal.

2019 ◽  
Vol 119 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hong-liang Sun ◽  
Eugene Ch’ng ◽  
Simon See

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate political influential spreaders in Twitter at the juncture before and after the Malaysian General Election in 2013 (MGE2013) for the purpose of understanding if the political sphere within Twitter reflects the intentions, popularity and influence of political figures in the year in which Malaysia has its first “social media election.” Design/methodology/approach A Big Data approach was used for acquiring a series of longitudinal data sets during the election period. The work differs from existing methods focusing on the general statistics of the number of followers, supporters, sentiment analysis, etc. A retweeting network has been extracted from tweets and retweets and has been mapped to a novel information flow and propagation network we developed. The authors conducted quantitative studies using k-shell decomposition, which enables the construction of a quantitative Twitter political propagation sphere where members posited at the core areas are more influential than those in the outer circles and periphery. Findings The authors conducted a comparative study of the influential members of Twitter political propagation sphere on the election day and the day after. The authors found that representatives of political parties which are located at the center of the propagation network are winners of the presidential election. This may indicate that influential power within Twitter is positively related to the final election results, at least in MGE2013. Furthermore, a number of non-politicians located at the center of the propagation network also significantly influenced the election. Research limitations/implications This research is based on a large electoral campaign in a specific election period, and within a predefined nation. While the result is significant and meaningful, more case studies are needed for generalized application for identifying potential winning candidates in future social-media fueled political elections. Practical implications The authors presented a simple yet effective model for identifying influential spreaders in the Twitter political sphere. The application of the authors’ approach yielded the conclusion that online “coreness” score has significant influence to the final offline electoral results. This presents great opportunities for applying the novel methodology in the upcoming Malaysian General Election in 2018. The discovery presented here can be used for understanding how different players of political parties engage themselves in the election game in Twitter. The approach can also be adopted as a factor of influence for offline electoral activities. The conception of a quantitative approach in electoral results greatly influenced by social media means that comparative studies could be made in future elections. Originality/value Existing works related to general elections of various nations have either bypassed or ignored the subtle links between online and offline influential propagations. The modeling of influence from social media using a longitudinal and multilayered approach is also rarely studied. This simple yet effective method provides a new perspective of practice for understanding how different players behave and mutually shape each other over time in the election game.


2019 ◽  
Vol 75 (5) ◽  
pp. 1082-1099 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rita Marcella ◽  
Graeme Baxter ◽  
Agnieszka Walicka

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a study that explored human behaviour in response to political “facts” presented online by political parties in Scotland. Design/methodology/approach The study consisted of interactive online interviews with 23 citizens in North-East Scotland, in the run-up to the 2017 UK General Election. Findings Participants demonstrated cognitive and critical responses to facts but little affective reaction. They judged facts swiftly and largely intuitively, providing evidence that facts are frequently consumed, accepted or rejected without further verification processes. Users demonstrated varying levels of engagement with the information they consume, and subject knowledge may influence the extent to which respondents trust facts, in previously unanticipated ways. Users tended to notice facts with which they disagreed and, in terms of prominence, particularly noted and responded to facts which painted extremely negative or positive pictures. Most acknowledged limitations in capacity to interrogate facts, but some were delusionally confident. Originality/value Relatively little empirical research has been conducted exploring the perceived credibility of political or government information online. It is believed that this and a companion study are the first to have specifically investigated the Scottish political arena. This paper presents a new, exploratory fact interrogation model, alongside an expanded information quality awareness model.


2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginia Fisher ◽  
Sue Kinsey

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to explore the nature and power of the academic boys club. In many organisations, the political significance of the boys club goes largely unremarked and unacknowledged. Yet, the way that male colleagues intimately relate to each other, sometimes called homosocial desire, is crucial to their success at gaining and retaining power at work. Design/methodology/approach – Feminist, poststructuralist, ethnographic, qualitative, and longitudinal data were collected over a five-year period from male and female academics in a British university. Findings – The boys club is still a powerful feature of British universities. Their apparent invisibility shrouds the manner in which they can and do promote and maintain male interests in a myriad of ways, including selection and promotion. These findings have resonances for all organisations. Research limitations/implications – Researching the intimacies between male colleagues requires time-intensive field work and insider access to men interacting with each other. Practical implications – Meaningful gender equality will not be achieved unless and until the more sophisticated forms of female exclusion are revealed and deconstructed. Originality/value – This research makes an unusual and crucial contribution to the study of gender, men and masculinities by providing longitudinal, rich, detailed data, observing men at the closest of quarters and then analysed by a feminist and poststructuralist gaze.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hila Axelrad ◽  
Alexandra Kalev ◽  
Noah Lewin-Epstein

PurposeHigher pensionable age in many countries that are part of Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and a shrinking pension income force older people to postpone their retirement. Yet, age-based discrimination in employers' decisions is a significant barrier to their employment. Hence, this paper aims to explore employers' attitudes regarding the employment of workers aged 60–70, striving for a better understanding of age discrimination.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with 30 managers, experts and employees in retirement age in Israel.FindingsFindings reveal a spectrum of employers' attitudes toward the employment of older workers. The authors' analytical contribution is a conceptual typology based on employers' perceived ability to employ older workers and their stated attitudes toward the employment of older workers.Social implicationsThe insights that emerge from this research are fundamental for organizational actors' ability to expand the productive, unbiased employment of older workers.Originality/valueBy understanding employers' preferences and perspectives and the implications on employers' ability and/or willingness to employ older workers, this research will help policymakers formulate and implement policy innovations that address these biases.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Tironi ◽  
Katherine Campos-Knothe ◽  
Valentina Acuña ◽  
Enzo Isola ◽  
Cristóbal Bonelli ◽  
...  

PurposeBased on the research, the authors identify how four key concepts in disaster studies—agency, local scale, memory and vulnerability—are interrupted, and how these interruptions offer new perspectives for doing disaster research from and for the South.Design/methodology/approachMeta-analysis of case studies and revision of past and current collaborations of authors with communities across Chile.FindingsThe findings suggest that agency, local scale, memory and vulnerability, as fundamental concepts for disaster risk reduction (DRR) theory and practice, need to allow for ambivalences, ironies, granularization and further materializations. The authors identify these characteristics as the conditions that emerge when doing disaster research from within the disaster itself, perhaps the critical condition of what is usually known as the South.Originality/valueThe authors contribute to a reflexive assessment of fundamental concepts for critical disaster studies. The authors offer research-based and empirically rich redefinitions of these concepts. The authors also offer a novel understanding of the political and epistemological conditions of the “South” as both a geography and a project.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 273-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Musselwhite

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how older people who are almost entirely housebound use a view from their window to make sense of the world and stay connected to the outside space that they cannot physically inhabit. Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured interviews with 42 individuals were carried out who were living at home, were relatively immobile and had an interesting view outside they liked from one or more of their windows. Findings The findings suggest that immobile older people enjoy watching a motion-full, changing, world going on outside of their own mobility and interact and create meaning and sense, relating themselves to the outside world. Practical implications Findings suggest that those working in health and social care must realise the importance of older people observing the outdoors and create situations where that is enabled and maintained through improving vantage points and potentially using technology. Originality/value This study builds and updates work by Rowles (1981) showing that preference for views from the window involves the immediate surveillance zone but also further afield. The view can be rural or urban but should include a human element from which older people can interact through storytelling. The view often contains different flows, between mundane and mystery and intrigue, and between expected and random.


2019 ◽  
pp. 237-255

Resumen: El trabajo se centra en una cuestión poco tratada, como es la renta básica universal y su relación con los actuales programas de los partidos políticos, con los que han concurrido a las elecciones generales, con una doble dimensión: a) lo que cada programa presenta y defiende acerca de esta renta o medidas similares (justificación, alcance y límites), y b) una vez esbozadas la idea y alcance de la renta en cada partido, el análisis comparativo de las diversas propuestas de los partidos, abundando en la cercanía o la distancia de tales propuestas con una renta básica universal Palabras clave:renta básica universal, rentas de solidaridad, políticas sociales, igualdad social, soluciones a la pobreza. Abstract: The work focuses on a little-treated issue, as it is the universal basic income and its relationship with existing programmes of the political parties, which have attended the general election, with a double dimension: (a) what each program presents and defends about this income or similar measures (justification, scope and limits), and b) once outlined the idea and scope of the income in each party, the comparative analysis of the various proposals of the parties, abounding in the closeness or distance of such proposals with a universal basic income. Keywords:universal basic income, income from solidarity, social policy, social equality, solutions to poverty.


2008 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 289-291
Author(s):  
Wayne P. Steger

Understanding why certain candidates get nominated is an important aspect of political scientists. This topic is a narrow one and influences a wider variety of subjects such as the political parties, general elections, and even the extent to which the United States is a democratic country. Presidential nominees matter—they become the foremost spokesperson and the personified image of the party (Miller and Gronbeck 1994), the main selectors of issues and policies for their party’s general election campaign (Petrocik 1996; Tedesco 2001), a major force in defining the ideological direction of a political party (Herrera 1995), and candidates that voters select among in the general election. This volume is devoted to presidential nominations and the 2008 nomination specifically.


2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodore Stickley ◽  
Ada Hui ◽  
Gary Souter ◽  
Danielle Mills

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present an evaluation of a community-based arts programme for older people in Nottinghamshire. Design/methodology/approach – The evaluation was conducted using a combination of pre- and post-initiative quantitative questionnaires and qualitative focus group interviews. This paper focuses upon the findings from the focus groups. Findings – Participants reported feeling more positively about ageing and being more motivated to pursue new opportunities at the end of the programme. Five themes emerged from the focus group interviews, namely age and ageing, the finished product, new opportunities, aspirations and the future and personal benefits. These related to increased confidence, having greater creative expression, meaningful occupation and opportunities for socialisation. Social implications – The programme was found to be successful in helping individuals feel more positive about their age, to feel more confident and motivated, to engage with others through mutual creativity, as well as to challenge negative social stereotypes of older people. Originality/value – The paper will be of relevance and value to those working with older people and those with an interest in the arts. This evaluation demonstrates the diversity of the older population with older citizen’s voices being at the heart of the programme.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Lego Munoz ◽  
Terri Towner

PurposeThis paper aims to examine how exposure to a presidential candidate's high engagement Instagram images influences a citizen's candidate evaluations.Design/methodology/approachData were collected via Amazon MTurk. A 3 × 2 experimental design was employed to test the persuasive effect of exposure of the “most liked” and “most commented on” images of the top four 2016 US presidential primary candidates on a US citizen's candidate evaluation.FindingsResults reveal that highly engaging Instagram images of unfamiliar presidential candidates positively influenced candidate evaluations. However, the same was not true for more well-known presidential candidates.Research limitations/implicationsThis study was not conducted during a live campaign and only examined four of the top 2016 presidential primary candidates.Practical implicationsThe research includes implications for marketers seeking to increase engagement and reach in Instagram marketing campaigns. This study shows that even brief exposure to a highly engaged post involving an unfamiliar person/product on social media can significantly alter evaluations of that person or product.Originality/valueTo the authors' knowledge, no experimental designs have addressed how Instagram posts influence users' political attitudes and behaviors within the political marketing and communications literature.


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