scholarly journals Social Theory Meets Social Policy: Culture, Identity and Public Information Policy After September 11

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter M. Shane
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Information Society ◽  
Public Information ◽  
September 11 ◽  
Information Policy ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Information And Communications Technologies ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
Post September 11 ◽  
Government Secrecy

Notwithstanding recent events that might be thought to create an atmosphere especially hospitable for increases in federal government secrecy, government initiatives favoring of the withholding of information have been accompanied by other moves in the direction of greater openness. In his introduction to a symposium on Federal Secrecy After September 11 and the Future of the Information Society, Professor Shane suggests that the politics of post-September 11 information policy debates may be complicated, in part, by social developments that are affecting the non-instrumental cultural values Americans associate with access to information. Specifically, information and communications technologies are enabling and sustaining an unprecedented degree of active participation for ordinary individuals in the creation of culture and of social meaning, and thus fostering conditions opposed to the assumptions about authority, categorical coherence, and the susceptibility of information to isolation that have historically made government secrecy seem both legitimate and practicable. These developments do not mean that openness will or should in principle prevail over secrecy in all debates regarding public information policy. But they render the political terrain for proponents of secrecy rougher to the extent that these social changes make secrecy regimes seem more alien and unnatural in the information society.

Presidential Privilege and the Freedom of Information Act

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin M. Baron
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Public Information ◽  
Executive Branch ◽  
Executive Power ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Freedom Of Information ◽  
Freedom Of Information Act ◽  
Contemporary Politics ◽  
Government Secrecy

Executive privilege (EP) as a political tool has created a grey area of constitutional power between the legislative and executive branches. By focusing on the post-WWII political usage of executive privilege, this research utilizes a social learning perspective to examine the power dynamics between Congress and the president when it comes to government secrecy and public information. Social learning provides the framework to understand how the Cold War's creation of the modern American security state led to a paradigm shift in the executive branch. This shift altered the politics of the presidency and impacted relations with Congress through extensive use of EP and denial of congressional requests for information. When viewed through a social learning lens, the institutional politics surrounding the development of the Freedom of Information Act is intricately entwined with EP as a political power struggle of action-reaction between the executive and legislative branches. Using extensive archival research, this historical analysis examines the politics surrounding the modern use of executive privilege from Truman through Nixon as an action-reaction of checks on power from the president and Congress, where each learns and responds based on the others previous actions. The use of executive privilege led to the Freedom of Information Act showing how policy can serve as a congressional check on executive power, and how the politics surrounding this issue influence contemporary politics.

“The Fabric of our Lives”

2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 150-167
Author(s):  
Jim McDonnell
Keyword(s):  
Information Society ◽  
Information Ethics ◽  
Media Ecology ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Active Engagement ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
Problematic Area ◽  
The Way

This paper is a first attempt to explore how a theology of communication might best integrate and develop reflection on the Internet and the problematic area of the so-called “information society.” It examines the way in which official Church documents on communications have attempted to deal with these issues and proposes elements for a broader framework including “media ecology,” information ethics and more active engagement with the broader social and policy debates.

scholarly journals Changing Neighborhoods and Residents’ Health Perceptions: The Heart Healthy Hoods Qualitative Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (8) ◽  
pp. 1617 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paloma Conde ◽  
Marta Gutiérrez ◽  
María Sandín ◽  
Julia Díez ◽  
Luisa Borrell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Health Perceptions ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Positive Health ◽  
Family Responsibilities ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Constant Change

Cities, and therefore neighborhoods, are under constant change. Neighborhood changes may affect residents’ health in multiple ways. The Heart Healthy Hoods (HHH) project studies the association between neighborhood and residents’ health. Focusing on a middle–low-socioeconomic neighborhood in Madrid (Spain), our aim was to describe qualitatively its residents’ perceptions on the urban changes and their impacts on health. We designed a qualitative study using 16 semi-structured interviews including adult residents and professionals living or working in the area. Firstly, we described the perceived main social and neighborhood changes. Secondly, we studied how these neighborhood changes connected to residents’ health perceptions. Perceived major social changes were new demographic composition, new socio–cultural values and economic changes. Residents’ negative health perceptions were the reduction of social relationships, increase of stress and labor precariousness. Positive health perceptions were the creation of supportive links, assimilation of self-care activities and the change in traditional roles. Neighborhood changes yielded both negative and positive effects on residents’ health. These effects would be the result of the interrelation of different elements such as the existence or absence of social ties, family responsibilities, time availability, economic resources and access and awareness to health-promoting programs. These qualitative research results provide important insight into crafting urban health policies that may ultimately improve health outcomes in communities undergoing change.

scholarly journals The Constant Changes in US Strategy in Afghanistan: Achievement or Failure

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 41
Author(s):  
Behnam Sahranavard ◽  
Ali Asghar Kazemi
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
September 11 ◽  
International Terrorism ◽  
Basic Question ◽  
Collection Method ◽  
External Conditions ◽  
Post September 11 ◽  
The Given

The nations take various strategies in exposure to different developments and phenomena and impact on foreign and internal policies of countries in international scene proportional to their internal and external conditions and rivals and at international arena. What US implemented after September 11 Event and targeted accusation finger toward Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan is deemed as a type of strategy that has occurred in created nostalgic climate together with hasty decision making and negligence to domestic issues in Afghan Community while their output was to take different and even paradoxical strategies in this crisis-stricken region since 1980s. In this article that has been written in order to analyze US Post September- 11 Strategies in Afghanistan this basic question will be answered that how changes in US macro policies influenced in orientation of diplomacy of this country and why this country has adapted different policies in occupation of Afghanistan. Afterwards, it is deduced according to the given findings from librarian data collection method that the constant changes in US strategy in Afghanistan were due to overlooking of domestic issues and historic, ethnic, cultural, political, and ideological complexities of this country that has resulted in degradation of US position in world scene and its failure in suppression of Taliban.This article has been excerpted from my PhD treatise under title of ‘The role of United States in the regional crisis (e.g. Afghan and Iraqi crises) and the rise of revolutionary and radicalism on the emergence of international terrorism’.

scholarly journals A Little Knowledge: Privacy, Security and Public Information After September 11

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter M. Shane
Keyword(s):  
New Technologies ◽  
Technology Policy ◽  
Scientific Information ◽  
Public Information ◽  
The United States ◽  
September 11 ◽  
Personal Privacy ◽  
Security Technology ◽  
New Public ◽  
Free Flow Of Information

Drawn from the proceedings of the April, 2003 Carnegie Mellon (InSITeS)-Georgetown University Law Center-Century Foundation conference on Security, Technology, and Privacy, A Little Knowledge looks at the different ways that public security, government transparency and the individual's right to privacy have been placed at odds after September 11. In an introductory essay, the editors synthesize the lessons of the chapters that follow into six key propositions: (1) The free flow of information is essential to the security and prosperity of the United States; (2) The impulse towards secrecy inevitably metastasizes; (3) Public information policy and technology policy are inescapably linked; (4) New technologies hold unprecedented promise for maximizing the value of information to an empowered citizenry; (5) Because technology is Janus-faced, democratic intention is as critical to shaping the future as sound engineering; (6) We need new public institutions to insure adequate consideration of the arguments in favor of freedom of public information and the protection of personal privacy. The authors especially urge policy makers to eschew the pursuit of tradeoffs among privacy, security, and transparency as long as possible in favor of a national dialogue about how to optimize the joint realization of these three central values. The volume also features John Podesta on Governing in Secret; Alice P. Gast on restricting the flow of scientific information; Baruch Fischhoff on disclosing risks; Victor W. Weedn on government risk communications; George Duncan on optimizing privacy and openness values in the management of government databases; Joel R. Reidenberg on international approaches to privacy; and Sally Katzen on public information rights.

scholarly journals Biometrics: constructing 'ideal' subjects and 'aliens' at the Canada-U.S. border

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirjana Mandaric
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Vulnerable Populations ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Social Research ◽  
September 11 ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Strategic Objectives ◽  
Central Argument ◽  
Post September 11 ◽  
Refugees And Asylum Seekers

Employing critical social research in combination with critical discourse analysis, this paper examines the use of biometrics technology in the citizenship and immigration context with particular emphasis on its application at the Canada-U.S. border. The central argument of thls paper is that through the use of biometrics technology at the Canada-U.S crossing, the border has become a social filter that separates welcome from unwelcome migrants depending on strategic objectives to include and exclude population groups, which makes them part of a social an economic strategy in the post-September 11 securitized environment. Moreover, the paper takes the position that through the use of biometrics technology at the Canada-U.S. border, the notion of citizenship is being reconstructed whereby racialized migrants and vulnerable populations will be tremendously affected: most notably, poor migrants from the South as well as refugees and asylum seekers from elsewhere.

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