The Politics of Education in Kenyan Universities: A Call for a Paradigm Shift

2009 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 55-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mwangi Chege

Abstract:The winds of political change have been sweeping across Kenya for the last two decades. However, as many sections of society—the media, the church, civil society, and even ordinary people—take advantage of the unprecedented democratic space in which to engage the political establishment, the country's intelligentsia has remained aloof. The aim of this article is to interrogate discourse patterns in the Kenyan university system. Adopting a historical lens, it argues that the curtailment of intellectual freedom in the postcolonial Kenyan university is a reproduction of the colonial suppression of discourses whose objective was to ensure the political survival of the ruling class. It also argues for the adoption of critical pedagogies that challenge the status quo.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Venera Nauryzova ◽  
Umit Kairova

The article examines the history of the development of the Constitution and the status of constitutional values, the rule of law. The foundations of the constitutional reform have been determined. The political system of the state is clearly spelled out in our constitution. At the same time, this law for the first time describes the core of the political system - the presidential system. Today we can say that our Constitution and laws allow us to stimulate creativity and entrepreneurship. This norm defines the main purpose, the scope of public relations to be regulated by constitutional laws, laws, Presidential Decrees, regulations of government agencies of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Attention should be paid to the role, meaning and features of the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan as the main document of the country. In addition, it tells about the adoption of our Constitution, its achievements, measures to prove that Kazakhstan is a legal state. As soon as the draft of the new Constitution was published in the media for public discussion, it can be said that in fact the whole country began its work. It is said that the Constitution of the Republic is the initiator of a new stage of constitutional development, which has a high legal force and stability, strengthens and regulates the basic social relations in the field of legal status of citizens, civil society institutions, state organizations and government agencies.


Author(s):  
Martin C. Njoroge ◽  
Purity Kimani ◽  
Bernard J. Kikech

The way the media processes, frames, and passes on information either to the government or to the people affects the function of the political system. This chapter discusses the interaction between new media and ethnicity in Kenya, Africa. The chapter investigates ways in which the new media reinforced issues relating to ethnicity prior to Kenya’s 2007 presidential election. In demonstrating the nexus between new media and ethnicity, the chapter argues that the upsurge of ethnic animosity was chiefly instigated by new media’s influence. Prior to the election, politicians had mobilized their supporters along ethnic lines, and created a tinderbox situation. Thus, there is need for the new media in Kenya to help the citizens to redefine the status of ethnic relationships through the recognition of ethnic differences and the re-discovery of equitable ways to accommodate them; after all, there is more strength than weaknesses in these differences.


2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-181
Author(s):  
Nandita Haksar

This article argues that although Irom Sharmila’s 16-year-old fast from November 2000 to August 2016 has earned her the status of an icon of non-violent protest, yet she did not seek these appellations; her only aim was to put moral pressure on the government to repeal the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958. The article seeks to assess the efficacy of Irom Sharmila’s protest and how far it has helped or hindered in mobilizing public opinion against the Act. It propounds that the publicity around Irom Sharmila put her on a pedestal and trapped her in her own image, made invisible entire histories of sufferings of people in the northeast, including Manipur, and their struggles against the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act. The gains of many struggles and efforts were wiped out of the collective memory of the nation and the only image of Manipur was this frail woman with a tube hanging from her nose. The article also argues that there is a kind of fetish in the way the media celebrates non-violence without reference to the political context.


Author(s):  
Christian Fuchs ◽  
Dwayne Winseck

This article documents a conversation between us that was first published in parallel on our two blogs http://dwmw.wordpress.com and http://fuchs.uti.at/blog. The conversation deals with our assessments of the status of Critical Media and Communication Studies today. We discuss the work of Dallas Smythe, how to study and assess Google, research dimensions of Critical Political Economy of the Media, how important each of these dimensions should be, the role of ideology critique for Critical Political Economy of the Media, the commonalities and differences between Political Economies of the Media and Critical Political Economy of the Media/Critique of the Political Economy of the Media, the role of Karl Marx for Political Economies of the Media, Nicholas Garnham's recent comments on the field of Critical Political Economy of the Media, neoliberalism and capitalist crisis as contexts for Political Economies of the Media. Comments are very welcome on our blogs, URLs to the specific blog postings can be found in the article sections.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Leka

The picture of recent legal developments concerning defamation in Albania is mixed. On the one hand, several criminal defamation and insult statuteshave been abolishedsince 2012, following strong lobbying of human rights organizations. On the other, the application of criminal defamation laws has not stopped, while government officials and other high profile persons have discovered the power of civil defamation claims. Faced with intense criticism, the government has tried to re-introduce the abolished criminal defamation laws and has faced the same strong opposition and international outcry. In the meantime, defamation claims or threats thereof are routinely being used against the media or against the political opponent for the only purposes of creating tension and diffusing the attention of the public. The vagueness of the laws and the inconsistencies of judicial interpretation, helped in no little measure by judicial corruption and the political control of the judiciary, have widened the gap between constitutional and international guarantees of the freedom of speech and the actual enforcement of those guarantees. This article will briefly expose the history of defamation laws in Albania, the difficulties of their application, and the status of affairs concerning defamation laws and claims.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Febianti Nurul Adha ◽  
Moses Glorino Rumambo Pandin

The book entitled "The Death of Epidemiologists: Capital Expansion and the Origin of Covid19" has a total of 258 pages with very dense content and many sources of writing. This book waswritten by Rob Wallace in 2020, then translated by A. Faricha Mantika, and published by IndependentPublishers the following year. Rob Wallace is an evolutionary biologist and public healthphylogeography currently working as a researcher at the Institute for Global Studies at the University ofMinnesota. Rob Wallace is also the author of Big Farms Make Big Flu, Dead Epidemiologist, and thesoon-to-be-published Revolution Space, all three published by the Monthly Review Press. Based on thetable of contents, the book contains 12 chapters, two of which are chapters 1 and 4 containinginterviews conducted by Rob Wallace. The purpose of writing the book is an attempt by the author to answer the main question,namely, how did the origin of covid-19? Furthermore, the writing of this book also aims to describehow the economic system causes the death of epidemiologists. Why is the denial and justification of thevirus their way of the ruling class to exist? And why is it impossible for the ruling class to play a role instopping this radical change and the virus? Therefore, the purpose of writing the book is to explain howthe origin of the covid-19 virus and how epidemiologists submit and die by the expansion of capitalbelonging to the ruling class, as well as explain the political tools of "justification and denial" by theruling class to maintain the status quo.


2007 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-8
Author(s):  
Charu Uppal ◽  
Shailendra Singh ◽  
Patrick Craddock

As this edition of Pacific Journalism Review went to press, Fiji was in the throes of conducting a census. Technology is helping the process. Technology is often associated with democratising the political proc- ess, decentralising the status quo, upholding free speech, promoting direct democracy and amplifying voices that often remain silent. Regardless of the potential of technology to deliver these freedoms, the issues that existed before the advent of the internet, e.g. access to technology (affordability and availability, including the issue of electricity in developing nations), user motivation and skill in using these new gadgets still stand. This edition, jointly produced with University of the South Pacific media staff, publishes a series of articles addressing these issues. On Media Freedom Day, 3 May 2006, the Fiji Media Council, assisted by USP’s regional journalism programme, organised a panel on ‘Media and alleviation of poverty’. The panel—men from the developed world who were either connected to the media industry in Fiji, or owned a great stake in it—talked about everything but the media’s role in alleviating poverty.


2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pauline Pooi Yin Leong

To gain and retain political power, politicians use the media to persuade the masses to vote and support them, especially during elections. Barisan Nasional (BN) has successfully used the media to maintain its power for the past 57 years, making it the longest-serving elected government in the world still currently in office. However, the emergence of the Internet has challenged the status quo. The purpose of the research was to investigate how new media has influenced the political process and communication strategies in Malaysia and its impact on the political landscape. The researcher interviewed 19 respondents: politicians, bloggers and media consultants from both sides of the political divide. The findings showed that new media, especially Web 2.0, has expanded the public sphere and enabled more Malaysians to participate in the democratic process, through information dissemination, mobilisation or crowd-sourcing. However, the cyber-war between BN and the opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) has caused confusion and disinformation, affecting the quality of democratic decision-making. Nevertheless, new media has enabled more voices to emerge and challenge the political hegemony.


2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeeyang Rhee Baum

Taiwan recently adopted a series of administrative reform laws designed to make the bureaucracy more transparent and allow public participation in regulatory policies. Because administrative reform limits the executive's power, it is clear why legislatures would favor strict administrative procedures. But it is less clear why presidents would support them. The passage of these laws begs the question why presidents support administrative procedural reforms designed to restrict their abilities to act freely. I argue that in Taiwan, President Lee Teng-hui's control of his party deteriorated as factional disputes within his own party increased over time. Lee ultimately concluded that the Kuomintang's political survival depended on major reforms. Consequently, the status quo-oriented bureaucracy—hitherto an important source of support for Lee and his key constituencies—became an impediment. Lee supported Taiwan's Administrative Procedure Act in order to reduce the bureaucracy's capacity to impede reform. More generally, I argue that administrative procedures designed to open up the bureaucracy to the public, including previously excluded groups, can serve politicians' goal of redirecting the bureaucracy. Archival data, secondary sources, and interviews with key presidential advisers, senior career bureaucrats, and politicians support my argument.


1976 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 576-613 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Gleason

John Carroll was disturbed about the future of Catholicism as he surveyed the scene in the aftermath of the American Revolution. As a supporter of the patriot movement he was pleased that the policy of religious toleration allowed Catholics to participate fully in the political life of the new nation. No doubt he also perceived that the wartime alliance with Catholic France had done much to improve the status of the church among his countrymen. But these positive features were outweighed by the disorganization of the church and the apathy of her ministers. There were only about two dozen priests in the new republic, several of whom were too old to be of any use. But even the younger ones seemed listless and demoralized.


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