Alt-Right ‘cultural purity’, ideology and mainstream social policy discourse: towards a political anthropology of ‘mainstremeist’ ideology

Author(s):  
Julia Lux ◽  
John David Jordan

A series of journalistic books and articles exploring the Alt-Right provide detailed empirical data critical to understanding the underpinning social networks of the Alt-Right. However, intensive media focus on young, working-class – usually American – white supremacists sharing extremist material over the internet masks incidences of closely related racist, conspiracist, misogynist, and ‘anti-elitist’ ideology in wider, often middle-class mainstream media, politics, and social policy discourse. This article problematises these narratives. Drawing partly on the work of Mary Douglas and Antonio Gramsci, we contribute to ongoing national and international ‘Alt-Right’ debates with an interdisciplinary, political-anthropological model of ‘mainstremeist’ belief and action. This approach highlights the links between ‘fringe’ and ‘centre’ into an entangled social network seeking to deploy social policy as a tool of misogynist, patriarchal, racist, and classist retrenchment.

2003 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 317-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
SUSAN KENYON ◽  
JACKIE RAFFERTY ◽  
GLENN LYONS

This paper reports findings from research into the possibility that mobility-related social exclusion could be affected by an increase in access to virtual mobility – access to opportunities, services and social networks, via the Internet – amongst populations that experience exclusion. Transport is starting to be recognised as a key component of social policy, particularly in light of a number of recent studies, which have highlighted the link between transport and social exclusion, suggesting that low access to mobility can reduce the opportunity to participate in society – a finding with which this research concurs. Following the identification of this causal link, the majority of studies suggest that an increase in access to adequate physical mobility can provide a viable solution to mobility-related aspects of social exclusion.This paper questions the likelihood that increased physical mobility can, by itself, provide a fully viable or sustainable solution to mobility-related aspects of social exclusion. Findings from both a desk study and public consultation suggest that virtual mobility is already fulfilling an accessibility role, both substituting for and supplementing physical mobility, working to alleviate some aspects of mobility-related social exclusion in some sectors of society. The paper incorporates an analysis of the barriers to and problems with an increase in virtual mobility in society, and concludes that virtual mobility could be a valuable tool in both social and transport policy.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mayli Lañas-Navarro ◽  
Jose Ipanaque-Calderon Sr ◽  
Fiorela E Solano

BACKGROUND Research on the use of the Internet in the medical field is experiencing many advances, including mobile applications, social networks, telemedicine. Its implementation in medical care and comprehensive patient management is a much discussed topic at present. OBJECTIVE This narrative review aims to understand the impact of the internet and social networks on the management of diabetes, both for patients and medical staff. METHODS The bibliographic search was carried out in the databases Pubmed, Virtual Health Library (VHL) and Lilacs between 2018 to 2020. RESULTS Multiple mobile applications have been created for the help and control of diabetic patients, as well as the implementation of online courses, improving the knowledge of health personnel applying them in the field of telemedicine. CONCLUSIONS The use of the Internet and social networks brings many benefits for both the diabetic patient and the health personnel, offering advantages for both.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 817-832
Author(s):  
Ralf Kölbel

AbstractThe “no means no” model has been applied in Germany since November 10, 2016. Its introduction has considerably extended the scope of criminalized forms of sexual interaction. This Article examines the criminal policy discourse that gave rise to it and the question of whether the new provisions have led to the changes in the practices of criminal prosecution proclaimed in advance. The results will be critically assessed. The new legislation relating to sexual offenses was also shaped on the initiative of groups perceiving themselves as emancipatory, and in the understanding of these groups, the “no means no” provision acts as “progressive” criminalization. Yet, aside from the fact that the associated expectations have hardly been met as of yet, this movement would have to resolve an essential question: Is penal law compatible with a “progressive” social policy they claim to stand for at all, and if so, what conditions does it have to meet?


Publications ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 34
Author(s):  
Ruth Breeze

At times of crisis, access to information takes on special importance, and in the Internet age of constant connectedness, this is truer than ever. Over the course of the pandemic, the huge public demand for constantly updated health information has been met with a massive response from official and scientific sources, as well as from the mainstream media. However, it has also generated a vast stream of user-generated digital postings. Such phenomena are often regarded as unhelpful or even dangerous since they unwittingly spread misinformation or make it easier for potentially harmful disinformation to circulate. However, little is known about the dynamics of such forums or how scientific issues are represented there. To address this knowledge gap, this chapter uses a corpus-assisted discourse approach to examine how “expert” knowledge and other sources of authority are represented and contested in a corpus of 10,880 reader comments responding to Mail Online articles on the development of the COVID-19 vaccine in February–July 2020. The results show how “expert” knowledge is increasingly problematized and politicized, while other strategies are used to claim authority. The implications of these findings are discussed in the context of sociological theories, and some tentative solutions are proposed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-25
Author(s):  
Sónia Ferreira ◽  
Sara Santos ◽  
Pedro Espírito Santo

The internet search trend has caused that online users are looking for more and more enriched information. The evolution of social media has been huge and users relate to social networks differently than they did before. Currently, there are more than 4 billion active users on social networks and brands are looking to showcase their products and services. Our research found the following factors that influence social media engagement: informativeness, self-connection and advertising stimulation. Through literature review, we propose a conceptual model that has been tested in the PLS-SEM. Data were collected from 237 consumers and our survey found that engagement in social media is explained by the variables identified by our model. Important contributions to brand theory and management will be found in this investigation.


Complexity ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chengying Mao ◽  
Weisong Xiao

In the era of big data, social network has become an important reflection of human communications and interactions on the Internet. Identifying the influential spreaders in networks plays a crucial role in various areas, such as disease outbreak, virus propagation, and public opinion controlling. Based on the three basic centrality measures, a comprehensive algorithm named PARW-Rank for evaluating node influences has been proposed by applying preference relation analysis and random walk technique. For each basic measure, the preference relation between every node pair in a network is analyzed to construct the partial preference graph (PPG). Then, the comprehensive preference graph (CPG) is generated by combining the preference relations with respect to three basic measures. Finally, the ranking of nodes is determined by conducting random walk on the CPG. Furthermore, five public social networks are used for comparative analysis. The experimental results show that our PARW-Rank algorithm can achieve the higher precision and better stability than the existing methods with a single centrality measure.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-173
Author(s):  
MANUK HARUTYUNYAN

The article considers the problems of global information which is acquired via computer, social networks, the Internet and cyberspace. The main focus of the study is the disclosure of the complex and contradictory nature of the impact of the Internet on transformation processes of modern societies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (9) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Gila Cohen Zilka

In light of the many major changes in the lives of children and adolescents due to digital developments, this study sought to examine positive and negative experiences, e-safety and sharing with others while surfing the internet and especially social networks from the point of view of children and adolescents. The study also examined the correlation between these experiences, self-image and computer skills. Participating in this mixed-method study were 373 children and teenagers, who were divided into three age groups. The findings showed a positive correlation between self-image, the level of computer skills and the degree of internet use. The measure of self-esteem was found to correlate positively with the parameters of social networks surfing except for the parameter of negative experiences. Social networks and internet use among 16-18-year-olds was found to be higher than among younger children, with a rise in the number of teenagers’ negative experiences that corresponded to the rise in use. The adolescents also mentioned they had been exposed to violent content at a higher rate than the younger groups.


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