'Do This One For Me, George': Blair, Brown, Bono, Bush and the 'Actor-ness' of the G8

2007 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Allen Pigman ◽  
John Kotsopoulos

AbstractSince the G7/G8 was created at Rambouillet in 1975, it has evolved from being only a venue for diplomacy to becoming a diplomatic actor in its own right. Heads of government, foreign ministers, finance ministers, sherpas, and later other ministers who started meeting and communicating annually at G7 summits, began to generate shared meanings and form a collective identity, even if shifting, that was different and distinct from the identities of the member governments. Participating in the G8 has over time changed the interests of its members, including those of its most powerful member, the United States, across a whole range of issue areas. For example, Britain's leadership of the G8 in 2005 and agenda-setting for the Gleneagles summit pushed poverty reduction in Africa to the fore as a policy priority for G8 members, without which it would have fallen much farther down the foreign policy priority ladder, particularly in Washington. The British G8 agenda facilitated activism by anti-poverty NGOs and eminent person diplomats in raising global social consciousness on the issue and demands for change. The effect of G8 agenda-setting supports the argument that the evolution of multilateral organizations into diplomatic actors in their own right has changed the character of contemporary diplomacy in important ways.

1992 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 623-632 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael B. Salwen ◽  
Frances R. Matera

There is a relationship between media mentions of certain foreign nations and reader/viewer learning. A study in Dade County, Florida, matched a content analysis of major media with results of an extensive telephone survey within the context of agenda-setting hypotheses. Cumulative correlations over time suggest that the amount of news coverage devoted to various nations was accurately perceived by the audience. Media coverage, however, did not appear to influence public assessments of foreign nations as friends or enemies of the United States.


2004 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 70-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Gallagher

Public opinion in the United States and elsewhere celebrated the liberation of Afghan women following the defeat of the Taliban government. The United States promised to stay in Afghanistan and foster security, economic development, and human rights for all, especially women. After years of funding various anti- Soviet Mujahidin warlords, the United States had agreed to help reconstruct the country once before in 1992, when the Soviet-backed government fell, but had lost interest when the warlords began to fight among themselves. This time, however, it was going to be different. To date, however, conditions have not improved for most Afghan women and reconstruction has barely begun. How did this happen? This article explores media presentations of Afghan women and then compares them with recent reports from human rights organizations and other eyewitness accounts. It argues that the media depictions were built on earlier conceptions of Muslim societies and allowed us to adopt a romantic view that disguised or covered up the more complex historical context of Afghan history and American involvement in it. We allowed ourselves to believe that Afghans were exotic characters who were modernizing or progressing toward a western way of life, despite the temporary setback imposed by the Taliban government. In Afghanistan, however, there was a new trope: the feminist Afghan woman activist. Images of prominent Afghan women sans burqa were much favored by the mass media and American policymakers. The result, however, was not a new focus on funding feminist political organizations or making women’s rights a foreign policy priority; rather, it was an unwillingness to fulfill obligations incurred during decades of American-funded mujahidin warfare, to face the existence of deteriorating conditions for women, resumed opium cultivation, and a resurgent Taliban, or to commit to a multilateral approach that would bring in the funds and expertise needed to sustain a long-term process of reconstruction.


2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen A. Fitzner ◽  
Charlie Bennett ◽  
June McKoy ◽  
Cara Tigue

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-103
Author(s):  
Hardik A. Marfatia

In this paper, I undertake a novel approach to uncover the forecasting interconnections in the international housing markets. Using a dynamic model averaging framework that allows both the coefficients and the entire forecasting model to dynamically change over time, I uncover the intertwined forecasting relationships in 23 leading international housing markets. The evidence suggests significant forecasting interconnections in these markets. However, no country holds a constant forecasting advantage, including the United States and the United Kingdom, although the U.S. housing market's predictive power has increased over time. Evidence also suggests that allowing the forecasting model to change is more important than allowing the coefficients to change over time.


Author(s):  
William W. Franko ◽  
Christopher Witko

The authors conclude the book by recapping their arguments and empirical results, and discussing the possibilities for the “new economic populism” to promote egalitarian economic outcomes in the face of continuing gridlock and the dominance of Washington, DC’s policymaking institutions by business and the wealthy, and a conservative Republican Party. Many states are actually addressing inequality now, and these policies are working. Admittedly, many states also continue to embrace the policies that have contributed to growing inequality, such as tax cuts for the wealthy or attempting to weaken labor unions. But as the public grows more concerned about inequality, the authors argue, policies that help to address these income disparities will become more popular, and policies that exacerbate inequality will become less so. Over time, if history is a guide, more egalitarian policies will spread across the states, and ultimately to the federal government.


Author(s):  
Elliot Friedman ◽  
Beth LeBreton ◽  
Lindsay Fuzzell ◽  
Elizabeth Wehrpsann

By many estimates the majority of adults over age 65 have two or more chronic medical conditions (multimorbidity) and are consequently at increased risk of adverse functional outcomes. Nonetheless, many older adults with multimorbidity are able to maintain high levels of function and retain good quality of life. Research presented here is designed to understand the influences that help ensure better functional outcomes in these older adults. This chapter presents findings that draw on data from the Midlife in the United States study. The independent and interactive contributions of diverse factors to multimorbidity and changes in multimorbidity over time are reviewed. The degree that multimorbidity increases risk of cognitive impairment and disability is examined. The role of inflammation as a mediator is considered. Multimorbidity is increasingly the norm for older adults, so better understanding of factors contributing to variability in multimorbidity-related outcomes can lead to improved quality of life.


2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 423-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edwin C. Pereira ◽  
Kristin M. Shaw ◽  
Paula M. Snippes Vagnone ◽  
Jane E. Harper ◽  
Alexander J. Kallen ◽  
...  

Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) are a growing problem in the United States. We explored the feasibility of active laboratory-based surveillance of CRE in a metropolitan area not previously considered to be an area of CRE endemicity. We provide a framework to address CRE surveillance and to monitor changes in the incidence of CRE infection over time.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8148
Author(s):  
Ciska Ulug ◽  
Lummina Horlings ◽  
Elen-Maarja Trell

Ecovillages are collective projects that attempt to integrate sustainability principles into daily community life, while also striving to be demonstration projects for mainstream society. As spaces of experimentation, they can provide valuable insights into sustainability transformations. Through shared values and interpersonal connections, ecovillages possess collective identities, which provide a platform for enacting their ideals. However, many ecovillage residents question how to best enhance their role as models, resource centers, and pieces of a greater movement toward sustainability transformations, while simultaneously preserving their unique community and identity. In relation to the above, this paper addresses the questions: What can collective identity in ecovillage communities teach us about the objective and subjective dimensions of sustainability transformations? Furthermore, how can the perspective of collective identity highlight challenges for ecovillages for initiating sustainability transformations? Sustainability transformations encompass objective (behaviors) and subjective (values) dimensions; however, the interactions between these spheres deserve more scholarly attention. Using ethnographic data and in-depth interviews from three ecovillages in the United States, this paper reveals the value in collective identity for underscoring belonging and interpersonal relationships in sustainability transformations. Furthermore, the collective identity perspective exposes paradoxes and frictions between ecovillages and the societal structures and systems they are embedded within.


2021 ◽  
pp. 000276422110134
Author(s):  
Kerry Ard ◽  
Kevin Smiley

Scholars interested in understanding the unequal exposure to environmental harms by race and class have often relied on urban sociological theory. Specifically, the argument that the outmigration of middle-class Whites and African Americans from America’s industrial areas, as well as the decline in manufacturing employment in these communities, concentrated minority poverty around industrial sites. These nested, community-level, processes have not yet been measured as such in the environmental inequality literature. This article addresses this limitation by using spatial measures of poverty segregation between and within racial groups. Multilevel models are presented that examine how the density of industrial facilities is related to the economic health of a host-tract, the broader economic context of the county, and the level of poverty segregation (both within and between racial/ethnic groups). Results demonstrate that there is a spatial separation of the economic benefits and environmental harms across the United States, a pattern that has remained consistent over time.


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