Citizen's Deliberation on the Internet

2008 ◽  
pp. 230-253
Author(s):  
Laurence Monnoyer-Smith
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Theory Development ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
Added Value ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Technological Innovations ◽  
Rational Discourse ◽  
Large Groups ◽  
Do So

Within the frame of the deliberative democratic theory, development of ICT has been proposed as a solution to enhance discussion in large groups and foster political participation among citizens. Critics have however underlined the limits of such technological innovations which do not generate the expected diversity of viewpoints. This article highlights the limits of a Habermassian conception of deliberation which restrains it to a specific type of rational discourse and harnesses citizen’s expression within strict procedural constraints. Our case study, the DUCSAI debate, i.e. the French public debate about the location of the 3rd international Parisian airport, shows that the added value of Internet-based deliberation rests in that it offers, under specific conditions, another arena of public debate. The article shows that hybrid forms of debate can widen participant’s profile, the nature of their argumentation and their means of expression if it provides them with the opportunity to voice their concern the way they choose to do so.

Citizen's Deliberation on the Internet

2011 ◽  
pp. 379-393
Author(s):  
Laurence Monnoyer-Smith
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Theory Development ◽  
Added Value ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Technological Innovations ◽  
The Third ◽  
Rational Discourse ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Large Groups

Within the frame of the deliberative democratic theory, development of information and communication technology (ICT) has been proposed as a solution to enhance discussion in large groups and foster political participation among citizens. Critics have however underlined the limits of such technological innovations that do not generate the expected diversity of viewpoints. This paper highlights the limits of a Habermassian conception of deliberation, which restrains it to a specific type of rational discourse and harnesses citizens’ expression within strict procedural constraints. Our case study, the DUCSAI debate — that is, the French public debate about the location of the third international Parisian airport — shows that the added value of Internet-based deliberation rests in that it has widened both the participant’s profile, the nature of their argumentation and their means of expression. The use of ICT in this context has empowered the actors by giving them the opportunity to master the technical constraints of the debate.

The Internet, Political Participation and Election Turnout: A Case Study of Germany's www.abgeordnetenwatch.de

2010 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 156-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hartwig Pautz
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
East Germany ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Parliamentary Democracy ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Political Decision Making

Germany's parliamentary democracy appears to be in crisis. The major parties' membership is in decline and barely existing in East Germany, election turnout is decreasing at all levels, and the reputation of politicians has never been worse. At the same time, however, Germans are more interested in politics than in the 1990s, overwhelmingly support democracy, and are keen on participating particularly in local political decision making. Out of this situation emerged www.abgeordnetenwatch.de— a website that aims to re-establish the link between electors and elected by allowing voters and representatives to communicate via a publicly accessible question-andanswer structure. This article addresses the questions of whether such an instrument can revitalize representative democracy and whether it has done so in the context of the 2009 federal elections.

scholarly journals Crossing the Theory-Practice Divide

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (13) ◽  
pp. 31
Author(s):  
Willemien Sanders ◽  
Daniel Everts ◽  
Bonnie Van Vugt
Keyword(s):  
Media Studies ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Academic Skills ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Film And Television ◽  
Interactive Narratives ◽  
Auto Ethnography ◽  
Do So

Scholars are increasingly expected to share their knowledge through different media besides the written publication but struggle to do so. How might they teach their students the skills to do so? This article argues that Practice as Research, developed by practitioners venturing into academia, provides a useful framework to shape research outcomes into, for instance, video essays or interactive narratives. It is especially valuable to undergraduate students aiming to increase their knowledge and understanding of media through practical work, as it trains both practical and academic skills. This gives Practice as Research an added value in academic media studies curricula. This article is based on a case study of an advanced practical course for film and television students at Utrecht University and relies on course assignments, feedback conversations and auto-ethnography. As this article was authored by the course lecturer and two students, it provides insight from multiple perspectives.

Equitable Evaluation Of Bilingual Children's Language Knowledge Using the CDI

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Annick De Houwer
Keyword(s):  
Dual Language ◽  
Parent Report ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Fast Method ◽  
Methodological Issues ◽  
Language Knowledge ◽  
Rating Instrument ◽  
Language Data ◽  
Do So

The parent report or rating instrument commonly known as the CDI is an effective and fast method for evaluating, among other things, young children’s early comprehension and production vocabulary. It is widely used with both monolingual and bilingual populations. However, when the CDI is used with bilingual populations, methodological issues arise as to how the instrument can best be employed so that the evaluation is as complete and equitable as possible. It is commonly agreed that children need to be evaluated in both their languages. Who should provide these dual language data is less clear, and there is little attention to how data should be evaluated. Based on a detailed case study, this article focuses on some of these issues, with particular consideration given to (1) the added value of engaging more than a single rater per language in CDI data collection, and (2) the way ratings are processed. Given appropriate methodological attention, the CDI can effectively screen young bilingual children for a possible language delay. The article ends with a proposal for how one could do so in clinical practice.

scholarly journals «That’s just my opinion»: The principle of expression and the public debate

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ida Andersen
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Public Rhetoric ◽  
The Public ◽  
Informal Setting ◽  
Do So

Public debate is commonly understood as deliberation; as the weighing of arguments for and against choices of future action. A principle of deliberation entails that interlocutors approach one another through argumentation in favour and against a given point of view. In this article, I outline a competing debate ideal, the principle of expression, and demonstrate its pervasiveness in contemporary public rhetoric. According to this communicative ideal, public debate is understood not as an exchange of opinion but rather a display of opinions. The beliefs and opinions voiced in the public debate should, moreover, be seen as purely expressive: They arise out of the individual’s inviolable interiority and individuality. As such, argumentation is neither required nor legitimate. In the article, I outline the principle of expression and discuss its implications for the democratic public debate. I do so, by drawing on a case study of public debate in social media, as well as recent utterances spoken by political leaders. In moving between the utterances of ordinary people engaged in public debate in the informal setting of social media and the utterances of political leaders in formal settings, I demonstrate the pervasiveness of the principle of expression in contemporary public rhetoric.

The Internet is a Semicommons

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Grimmelmann
Keyword(s):  
Open Field ◽  
Online Communities ◽  
Strategic Behavior ◽  
Private Property ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Field System ◽  
Technical Features ◽  
Dynamic Interplay ◽  
Enormous Success

78 Fordham Law Review 2799 (2010)The Internet is a semicommons. Private property in servers and network links coexists with a shared communications platform. This distinctive combination both explains the Internet's enormous success and illustrates some of its recurring problems.Building on Henry Smith's theory of the semicommons in the medieval open-field system, this essay explains how the dynamic interplay between private and common uses on the Internet enables it to facilitate worldwide sharing and collaboration without collapsing under the strain of misuse. It shows that key technical features of the Internet, such as its layering of protocols and the Web's division into distinct "sites," respond to the characteristic threats of strategic behavior in a semicommons. An extended case study of the Usenet distributed messaging system shows that not all semicommons on the Internet succeed; the continued success of the Internet depends on our ability to create strong online communities that can manage and defend the infrastructure on which they rely. Private and common both have essential roles to play in that task, a lesson recognized in David Post's and Jonathan Zittrain's recent books on the Internet.

The transformative power of European technology in resource exploitation: reflections on the oil presses and railways of colonial Nigeria

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 555-582
Author(s):  
Nkemjika Chimee
Keyword(s):  
Technological Innovations ◽  
Resource Exploitation ◽  
Transformative Power ◽  
The North ◽  
Indigenous Production ◽  
Impact Of Technology ◽  
Transformative Impact ◽  
North And South ◽  
European Technology

Technological innovations, which in the nineteenth century were principally developed by European nations, were a crucial factor in transforming economies – not only those of the countries in which they originated, but also those of their colonies. This case study of Nigeria explores the way the British controlled the colony and subjugated the local people as a result of their superior technology. Upon taking over the territory, to aid the country's economic development, they began to construct railway lines to link major resource zones of the north and south. This facilitated the more efficient shipment of natural resources from these zones to the coastal ports for onward shipment to Britain. Indigenous production and the rendering of palm oil were transformed by the introduction of oil presses. The article examines the transformative impact of technology in resource exploitation, focusing specifically on railways and oil presses and their impact on Nigerian society.

scholarly journals Trusting the Corona-Warn-App? Contemplations on trust and trustworthiness at the intersection of technology, politics and public debate

2021 ◽  
pp. 026732312110283
Author(s):  
Judith Simon ◽  
Gernot Rieder
Keyword(s):  
Technology Development ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Initial Development ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Debates ◽  
Moral Duties ◽  
Moral Demands

Ever since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, questions of whom or what to trust have become paramount. This article examines the public debates surrounding the initial development of the German Corona-Warn-App in 2020 as a case study to analyse such questions at the intersection of trust and trustworthiness in technology development, design and oversight. Providing some insights into the nature and dynamics of trust and trustworthiness, we argue that (a) trust is only desirable and justified if placed well, that is, if directed at those being trustworthy; that (b) trust and trustworthiness come in degrees and have both epistemic and moral components; and that (c) such a normatively demanding understanding of trust excludes technologies as proper objects of trust and requires that trust is directed at socio-technical assemblages consisting of both humans and artefacts. We conclude with some lessons learned from our case study, highlighting the epistemic and moral demands for trustworthy technology development as well as for public debates about such technologies, which ultimately requires attributing epistemic and moral duties to all actors involved.

scholarly journals Architectural and Urban Attractiveness of Small Towns: A Case Study of Polish Coastal Cittaslow Towns on the Pomeranian Way of St. James

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 724
Author(s):  
Alicja K. Zawadzka
Keyword(s):  
Small Towns ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Development Policies ◽  
Quality Of Urban Life ◽  
Size Criterion ◽  
The Town ◽  
Modern Technologies

The paper presents the results of a study on the attractiveness to tourists and natives of the cultural qualities of coastal towns on The Pomeranian Way of St. James that are members of the Cittaslow network. Attention to the quality of urban life is inscribed in the development policies of towns applying to join the Cittaslow movement. In order to join the network (apart from the size criterion), towns need to meet a minimum of 50% plus one of the 72 criteria grouped into seven categories. One of the category is Quality of Urban Life Policy, so the towns applying to join Cittaslow commit themselves to actions aimed at improving the quality of urban life. The study on the attractiveness of cultural qualities of towns to tourists and natives was conducted using the author’s BRB method, whose added value is its universality and the possibility to study small towns regardless of their membership in the Cittaslow network. BRB is an acronym that stands for BUILDINGS, RELATIONSHIPS, BALANCE, and comprises three scopes of activities: BUILDINGS (iconic building and important sites where the inhabitants and the tourists are present); RELATIONSHIPS (the visual effects of the relations between the inhabitants and the town) and BALANCE (solutions that implement modern technologies). This method enables identification of places that are important to the inhabitants, where urban life takes place and which are often created with the involvement of the inhabitants. These are often the same spaces as those that attract tourists and perhaps stimulate them the desire to visit the town again (BRB—be right back). The aim of the BRB method is shown the attractiveness of small towns. The study has shown that the characteristic feature of Polish Cittaslow towns is their diversity: the architectural attractiveness of three towns is high both to tourists and natives. On the other hand, the urban attractiveness of the examined towns is an insufficient.

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