scholarly journals Political debate on YouTube: revitalization or degradation of democratic deliberation?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Gil-Ramírez ◽  
Ruth Gómez-de-Travesedo-Rojas ◽  
Ana Almansa-Martínez
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
Redes Sociales ◽  
Democratic Deliberation ◽  
Discursive Interaction ◽  
El Sistema ◽  
Established Fact ◽  
Sociedad Civil ◽  
Deliberative Processes

It seems to be an established fact that social media multiplies the possibilities for civil society to express its points of view and intervene in the debate about matters of public interest. However, this greater social participation in political discourse through such platforms does not always translate into an improvement in the quality of democratic deliberation. The aim of this research is to examine the characteristics of comments and conversations on YouTube in a pre-election period to determine whether such discursive interaction contributes to strengthening the democratic system or if, on the contrary, is detrimental to it. Adopting a quantitative–qualitative approach, content analysis and critical discourse analysis are combined to examine 471 comments collected from the most viewed videos on YouTube in the month before the Andalusian elections held on 2 December 2018. Various aspects are considered, including the theme and typology of opinions, the use of foul language, and the modes that the conversation adopts. The results indicate a social discourse in which the exchange of opposing positions prevails, including comments with a strong emotional burden that tend to attack or criticize the ideology of the protagonists in the videos, and where rudeness is present (although there are exceptions), mainly as personal insults among the participants. The characteristics of the conversation taking place on this online video platform in the pre-election period do not meet the minimum standards for argumentation and civil behavior in digital political debate, thus far from contributing to an improvement in the quality of deliberative processes, it is deteriorated. Resumen Las redes sociales multiplican las posibilidades de la sociedad civil de expresar sus opiniones e intervenir en el debate sobre asuntos de interés público. Este hecho parece constatado. Sin embargo, la mayor participación social en el discurso político a través de este tipo de plataformas no siempre se traduce en una mejora de la calidad de la deliberación democrática. Esta investigación examina las características de los comentarios y las conversaciones que tienen lugar en YouTube en período preelectoral con el fin de dirimir si la interacción discursiva que se produce contribuye a fortalecer el sistema democrático o si, por el contrario, suponen un perjuicio para el mismo. Desde un enfoque cuantitativo-cualitativo, se combinan el análisis de contenido y el análisis crítico del discurso para examinar 471 comentarios, recogidos en los vídeos más visionados en YouTube en el mes previo a las elecciones andaluzas celebradas el 2 de diciembre de 2018. Se atiende a diversos aspectos: temática y tipo de las opiniones, uso de la descortesía verbal y modos que adopta la conversación. Los resultados apuntan a un discurso social en el prevalece el intercambio de posturas contrapuestas, donde priman comentarios con fuerte carga emocional que tienden al ataque o la crítica de la ideología que protagoniza el audiovisual, y donde la descortesía, aunque no de forma generalizada, está presente, principalmente como forma de ofensa personal entre los interlocutores. Las características de la conversación que tiene lugar en la plataforma de vídeos online en período preelectoral no cumplen unos estándares mínimos de argumentación y civismo en el debate político digital que, lejos de contribuir a mejorar la calidad de los procesos deliberativos, los estaría perjudicando.

scholarly journals Patrones de organización social en la gestión de residuos sólidos urbanos en el continuo regional Distrito Federal-Estado de México

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (65) ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Felipe Núñez Espinoza
Keyword(s):  
Redes Sociales ◽  
El Sistema ◽  
Toma De Decisiones ◽  
Distrito Federal ◽  
Sociedad Civil

En este artículo se identifican algunos de los patrones de organización presentes en el sistema social encargado del manejo de los residuos sólidos urbanos del Distrito Federal y del Estado de México. El supuesto de partida fue considerar a dichos residuos como un espacio de confluencia de relaciones sociales, susceptibles de ser mapeadas y estudiadas con el enfoque del análisis de redes sociales. Para ello se tomó en cuenta a los municipios, a las empresas y a la sociedad civil. La información que permitió observar esta organización provino de los responsables de medio ambiente y de servicios públicos municipales, de las estadísticas oficiales y de la bibliografía especializada en el tema. Existe un sistema complejo de gestión de residuos, consistente en procesos de retroalimentación, etapas diferentes de organización e información que lo dinamizan e innovan, pero que también lo atomizan, y esto provoca que la toma de decisiones sea limitada frente a la magnitud de la situación.

Reconfiguración del territorio y movimientos sociales: territorios en disputa

2019 ◽  
pp. 55-75
Author(s):  
Josemanuel Luna Nemecio
Keyword(s):  
El Sistema ◽  
Sociedad Civil ◽  
Movimientos Sociales

Este trabajo ofrece una reflexión teórica para dar cuenta de los movimientos sociales que establecen procesos de lucha y resistencia en contra de la reconfiguración territorial que el sistema capitalista ha producido conforme la geopolítica mundial en el contexto de la crisis ecológica planetaria contemporánea. Se abordan las movilizaciones sociales —bajo la política económica neoliberal— que han puesto como principal objetivo político combatir la devastación ecológica que se ha producido como correlato de la reproducción simple y ampliada de capital y la producción social del espacio que el desarrollo económico y la acumulación han producido. La relevancia de abordar los movimientos socioambientales en relación con la reconfiguración capitalista del territorio se encuentra en la necesidad de reflexionar sobre la complejidad y el reto que representa para las ciencias sociales y humanidades generar reflexiones críticas basadas en criterios múltiples, considerando las temporalidades y transdiciplinariedad acerca de la lucha y resistencia que la sociedad civil lleva a cabo para evidenciar y detener la sobreexplotación y contaminación de las condiciones biofísicas de los territorios. Los movimientos socioambientales contemporáneos luchan por la defensa de sus territorios y riquezas naturales bajo la incertidumbre, riesgo y vulnerabilidad de la actual crisis ecológica planetaria.

scholarly journals Darker shades of “fairness” in India: Male attractiveness and colorism in commercials

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 225-248
Author(s):  
Sayantan Mukherjee
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Skin Tone ◽  
Indian Society ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Television Commercials ◽  
Multimodal Analysis ◽  
Light Skin ◽  
Indian Men ◽  
Skin Lightening

AbstractThe skin-lightening products for men in India and their mode of advertising have been shaping the concept of attractiveness for Indian men by portraying lighter skin tone as the most fundamental quality of being attractive, always desirable, and successful. Although women’s skin-lightening products in India have received attention by a few scholars lately, men’s products are still underresearched. Hence, this study aims to investigate the issue of colorism augmented by television commercials for men’s “fairness” (light skin tone) products in India. The primary data for this study are six Hindi television commercials for men’s skin-lightening products which were broadcast from 2005 to 2015 and were available on YouTube during data collection. The commercials are by one popular brand, Emami Fair and Handsome. The target commercials are significant for their categorical distinction in directness as well as for their nature of storytelling that helps facilitate the discourse of colorism itself. The methodology is a combination of multimodal analysis, critical discourse analysis, and advertisement analysis. The overall goal of this study is to bring visibility to this subtle and multilayered problem of colorism in Indian society which is being reinforced by the skin-lightening products for men.

Paradoxes of democracy: Rousseau and Hegel on democratic deliberation

2021 ◽  
pp. 019145372199070
Author(s):  
Lorenzo Rustighi
Keyword(s):  
Social Contract ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Executive Power ◽  
Democratic Participation ◽  
Democratic Deliberation ◽  
Pluralistic Society ◽  
Critical Response ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Deliberative Processes

In this article, I engage with what relevant literature addresses as the ‘paradox of democracy’ and trace it back to the dialectic between authorization and representation established by social contract theories. To make my argument, I take Rousseau’s Social Contract as a paradigmatic example of the paradox and analyse it in light of Hegel’s critical response. My aim is to show that, although Rousseau rejects the idea of representing the popular will, representation resurfaces in his Republic from top to bottom and engenders a structural opposition between citizens and rulers: drawing on the Hegelian scrutiny of contractarianism, I focus on three key moments in Rousseau’s theory, namely the Lawgiver, the majority rule and the executive power. After illustrating how the social contract undermines democratic participation in deliberative processes, I suggest that Hegel’s philosophy of right overcomes the paradox by positively assuming it as a dialectical contradiction that requires a specific constitutional approach to democracy. In this sense, I argue, the Hegelian perspective on democratic deliberation helps us to better frame Rousseau’s ambition to conceive the Republic as a free community of equals and urges us to elaborate a more coherent understanding of participation in a pluralistic society.

Death or Declaw: Dealing with Moral Ambiguity in a Veterinary Hospital

2005 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 315-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dana Atwood-Harvey
Keyword(s):  
Medical Practice ◽  
Organizational Support ◽  
Theoretical Research ◽  
Best Interest ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
Moral Ambiguity ◽  
Veterinary Hospital

AbstractThe medical practice of declawing has received much political debate over the past few years. Yet, empirical and theoretical research on how this practice is maintained and the ethical positions of those who actually participate in this work is lacking. Drawing from 9 months of ethnographic fieldwork in a feline-specific veterinary hospital and open-ended interviews with veterinarians and staff, this study examines veterinary staff members' attitudes toward, and strategies for, dealing with the medical practice of declawing. Specifically, findings show that a number of staff felt uncomfortable with their participation in onychectomy (declawing) and relied heavily on organizational support structures to cope both with these feelings and the moral ambiguity about the practice. Relying on these structures, the veterinarians and their staff are able simultaneously to define felines as subjects worthy of respect for their quality of life, protect their own self-identity as people who work toward the best interest of animals, and paradoxically support action toward felines that they find morally objectionable.

Climate impact of an optimised gas treatment on old landfills

2022 ◽  
pp. 0734242X2110701
Author(s):  
Roland Berger ◽  
Joachim Lehner
Keyword(s):  
New Technology ◽  
Landfill Gas ◽  
Calorific Value ◽  
Climate Impact ◽  
Treatment Technology ◽  
Gas Treatment ◽  
Treatment Measures ◽  
Established Fact ◽  
New Treatment

It is a well-established fact that the quality and quantity of landfill gas (LFG) start declining after a landfill is closed to further waste intake. Conventional gas treatment and utilisation systems such as flares and gas-driven engines require a certain quality of LFG: specifically, a sufficient methane concentration. Various measures are utilised to maintain the necessary quality of LFG, including a turn-down of gas extraction rates and a shutdown of low-quality gas wells, resulting in a decline of LFG production. This, however, does not have to be the case. The low calorific value (LCV) LFG capture and treatment technology developed by e-flox and referred to in this article as ‘LCV LFG System’ can significantly increase the collection rate and the amount of treated methane in an old landfill. This article introduces such new treatment measures, describes gas capture calculation methodologies and presents actual results based on a medium-sized landfill in Germany. The study demonstrates, among other things, that the LCV LFG system can reduce the CO2 avoidance costs to roughly 10 €/tCO2eq. We present this new technology as a quick and straightforward measure of dealing with the climate issues related to methane emissions of old landfills.

“If indeed this is the will of the Ekiti people”

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 461-484
Author(s):  
Ayodeji A. Adedara
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Epistemic Uncertainty ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Actor ◽  
Generic Structure ◽  
Fair Competition ◽  
The Will ◽  
Emerging Democracy

Abstract Based on the idea that the quality of a democracy may be measured against the quality of its public communication, this paper deploys Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to investigate a Nigerian gubernatorial concession speech in discursive terms. It argues that as an uncommon genre in political discourse in an emerging democracy this hybridised speech both indexes a growing culture of ‘fair competition’ in Nigeria’s eighteen-year-old civilian rule and presents the incumbent as a deft political actor who strategically claims political capital. The paper examines the text’s generic structure, the political and other actors mentioned or implied in it, its manipulation of pronominal references for rhetorical effect, as well as the epistemic uncertainty implied by a query-concession sequence noticed in it. Drawing on the concession speech literature, the paper charts a course for studying the concession speech as an emerging genre in a neonatal democracy like Nigeria.

scholarly journals Autoavaliação institucional: outros sentidos de avaliação (im)possíveis?

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (74) ◽  
pp. 558
Author(s):  
Rita de Cássia Prazeres Frangella ◽  
Maria Cristina Rezende de Campos
Keyword(s):  
Rio De Janeiro ◽  
Evaluation System ◽  
Quality Of Education ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Institutional Assessment ◽  
Palabras Clave ◽  
El Sistema ◽  
Evaluation Policies ◽  
Educational Field

<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Neste artigo, analisamos a autoavaliação institucional que integra o Sistema de Avaliação da Educação de Niterói (Saen), estado do Rio de Janeiro. O objetivo é discutir seu processo de constituição num contexto de centralidade das políticas de avaliação, defendendo essa como possibilidade de produção de políticas pelas escolas, como produção de sentidos de avaliação para além da lógica de accountability, colocando outros sentidos de qualidade em disputa. A partir de aportes pós-estruturais, assumimos o entendimento da política como luta pela significação, que se dá entre tensões, negociações, traduções. Concluímos argumentando que a experiência posta em análise nos permite problematizar de forma propositiva as políticas de avaliação centralizadas e centralizadoras que têm ganhado destaque no cenário educacional.<strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></strong></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><strong>Palavras-chave:</strong> Autoavaliação, Avaliação Institucional, Autoavaliação Institucional, Qualidade da Educação.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></p><p><strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Autoevaluación institucional: ¿otros sentidos de evaluación (im)posibles?<strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></strong></span></strong></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">En este artículo analizamos la autoevaluación institucional que integra el Sistema de Evaluação da Educação de Niterói (Saen), estado de Rio de Janeiro. El objetivo es discutir su proceso de constitución en un contexto de centralidad de las políticas de evaluación, defendiendo a ésta como una posibilidad de producción de políticas por las escuelas, como producción de sentidos de evaluación más allá de la lógica de accountability, colocando otros sentidos de calidad en disputa. A partir de aportes post-estructurales, asumimos el entendimiento de la política como lucha por la significación, que se da entre tensiones, negociaciones, traducciones. Concluimos argumentando que la experiencia en análisis nos permite problematizar de forma propositiva las políticas de evaluación centralizadas y centralizadoras que han ganado destaque en el escenario educacional.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><strong>Palabras clave</strong>: Autoevaluación, Evaluación Institucional, Autoevaluación Institucional, Calidad de la Educación.</span></p><p><strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></strong></p><p><strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Institutional self-assessment: other (im)possible meanings of assessment?<strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></strong></span></strong></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">In this article, we analyze the institutional self-assessment that integrates the Education Evaluation System of Niterói (SAEN) in the state of Rio de Janeiro. The aim is to discuss its constitution process in a context of centrality of evaluation policies, supporting it as a possibility for the schools to produce policies as production of meanings of evaluation beyond the logic of accountability, putting other meanings of quality in dispute. From post-structural contributions, we assume the understanding of the policies as the struggle for meaning, which occurs between tensions, negotiations, and translations. We conclude by arguing that the analytical experience allows us to propose centered and centralized evaluation policies that have gained prominence in the educational field.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><strong>Keywords</strong>: Self-Assessment, Institutional Assessment, Institutional Self-Assessment, Quality of Education.</span></p>

scholarly journals Scottish Press Coverage of UK General Elections after Devolution: the 2001 and 2005 Campaigns

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Dekavalla
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Press Coverage ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
Research Project ◽  
General Elections ◽  
Selection Of

This paper presents preliminary findings from a wider study into the form that political debate takes in Scottish and English/UK newspapers’ reporting of the 2001 and the 2005 UK Elections. The research project aims to contribute to the discussion regarding the role played by the Scottish press in political deliberation after devolution and compares its contribution to the electoral debate with that of newspapers bought in England. This paper explores the results of a content analysis of articles from daily Scottish and UK newspapers during the four weeks of each election campaign period. This reveals that, despite some differences, the overall picture of the coverage of major election issues is consistent. A selection of the coverage of taxation, the most mentioned reserved issue in the 2001 campaign, is subsequently analysed using critical discourse analysis, and the results suggest more distinction between the two sets of newspapers.

scholarly journals El sistema de las necesidades y la sociedad civil

1970 ◽  
pp. 27-36
Author(s):  
Julio De Zan
Keyword(s):  
El Sistema ◽  
Sociedad Civil ◽  
Modelo Económico

El modelo jurídico de la constitución de la sociedad y del estado mediante la ficción de un contrato social es reemplazado por Hegel mediante dos puntos de vista diferentes y complementarios: a) el modelo económico del sistema de las necesidades, que se rige por su propia ley inmanente a la cosa misma de esta esfera, y llega a producir en la sociedad civil una integración real más sólida y a la vez más dinámica que la de las comunidades tradicionales premodernas. b) la integración política sustantiva del espíritu objetivo que hace posible la regulación de los desequilibrios e injusticia de la sociedad civil por el Estado mediante una política moderadamente intervencionista. Más allá del sistema de la competitividad, la sociedad civil es también el continente y la trama de la solidaridad y la beneficencia, la cooperatividad corporativa de artes y oficios, las instituciones públicas no estatales de contralor y de administración de justicia, las actividades públicas del saber y la cultura, la formación de la opinión pública y la actividad de la clase universal que, más allá de la clase política, debe ser independiente del Estado y tiene como fin lo universal en cuanto tal, la formación de las otras clases, especialmente de la clase política y de los funcionarios, el juicio crítico y la contribución a la organización constitucional del Estado. 

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