scholarly journals Managing Uncertainties in Digital Democracy Experiments: A Case Study of the Management of the Stem Van West Experiment in Amsterdam-West, the Netherlands

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 218
Author(s):  
Vidar Stevens
Keyword(s):  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Digital Tools ◽  
Main Question ◽  
Digital Democracy ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Digital Era ◽  
Online Tools ◽  
Western Democracies

Can we use digital tools to increase and deepen citizen participation in open and democratic policy-making processes? That is the main question this article aims to address. Today, there is a global effort to foster democracies through online digital tools. However, for many governmental officials and scholars it is still a challenge to decipher how online digital tools technically function and operate, what effects such tools have on the users of the platforms, and how it impacts the practices of governmental organizations and politics. In our view, practices of digital democracy deserve more governmental attention. Anno 2018, we already do our banking, tax-payment, and data sharing online. Nonetheless, our democracy remains decidedly analogue; the activity of casting a vote requires citizens to go the local polling booth, queue up, and tick a box on a paper voting slip. As such, the aim of this article is to shed more light on this new way of thinking about democracy in the digital era. Furthermore, we want to show the readership how in a time where there is growing disillusionment with the political institutions of advanced Western democracies, online tools provide new ways of involving citizens in political decision-making. Therefore, in this article we explore the possibilities of digital tools regarding citizen participation and democracy, and particularly, focus on how to manage these political experiments.

scholarly journals Survival Skills in Digital Era: An Integration of Digital Literacy into EFL Classroom

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 435
Author(s):  
Nurul Alfia ◽  
Sumardi Sumardi ◽  
Diah Kristina
Keyword(s):  
Digital Technology ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Research Study ◽  
Digital Natives ◽  
Digital Tools ◽  
Case Study Design ◽  
Digital Era ◽  
Survival Skills ◽  
Use Of The Internet

The development of digital technology has made digital natives encounter situations that require survival skills to face intense competition in the digital age. This case study investigates how students integrate their digital literacy in the EFL classroom and what components of digital literacy are frequently integrated by the students. Three students from a senior high school in Surakarta were recruited purposively. A case study design was used in this research study. The results of interviews and observations revealed that in practice, students integrate digital literacy in every activity related to the use of the internet and digital tools. Students tended to integrate digital literacy according to the activity and objective to be achieved, ranging from searching for and understanding information to make new products. Meanwhile, digital literacy frequently integrated by the students was photo-visual literacy, information literacy, reproduction literacy, and real-time thinking literacy.

Understanding the Outcomes of Climate Change Campaigns in the Australian Environmental Movement

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Robyn Gulliver ◽  
Kelly S. Fielding ◽  
Winnifred Louis
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Environmental Advocacy ◽  
Personal Support ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Collective Response ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Advocacy Network ◽  
Australian Climate

Climate change is a global problem requiring a collective response. Grassroots advocacy has been an important element in propelling this collective response, often through the mechanism of campaigns. However, it is not clear whether the climate change campaigns organized by the environmental advocacy groups are successful in achieving their goals, nor the degree to which other benefits may accrue to groups who run them. To investigate this further, we report a case study of the Australian climate change advocacy sector. Three methods were used to gather data to inform this case study: content analysis of climate change organizations’ websites, analysis of website text relating to campaign outcomes, and interviews with climate change campaigners. Findings demonstrate that climate change advocacy is diverse and achieving substantial successes such as the development of climate change-related legislation and divestment commitments from a range of organizations. The data also highlights additional benefits of campaigning such as gaining access to political power and increasing groups’ financial and volunteer resources. The successful outcomes of campaigns were influenced by the ability of groups to sustain strong personal support networks, use skills and resources available across the wider environmental advocacy network, and form consensus around shared strategic values. Communicating the successes of climate change advocacy could help mobilize collective action to address climate change. As such, this case study of the Australian climate change movement is relevant for both academics focusing on social movements and collective action and advocacy-focused practitioners, philanthropists, and non-governmental organizations.

Language Movement and Civil War in West Africa

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ericka A. Albaugh
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Political Process ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Language Spread ◽  
The 1960S

This chapter examines how civil war can influence the spread of language. Specifically, it takes Sierra Leone as a case study to demonstrate how Krio grew from being primarily a language of urban areas in the 1960s to one spoken by most of the population in the 2000s. While some of this was due to “normal” factors such as population movement and growing urbanization, the civil war from 1991 to 2002 certainly catalyzed the process of language spread in the 1990s. Using census documents and surveys, the chapter tests the hypothesis at the national, regional, and individual levels. The spread of a language has political consequences, as it allows for citizen participation in the political process. It is an example of political scientists’ approach to uncovering the mechanisms for and evidence of language movement in Africa.

scholarly journals Sustainability in the European Union: Analyzing the Discourse of the European Green Deal

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 80
Author(s):  
Eva Eckert ◽  
Oleksandra Kovalevska
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
European Commission ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Main Question ◽  
The European Union ◽  
International Media ◽  
Institutional Power ◽  
The One ◽  
The Eu

In the European Union, the concern for sustainability has been legitimized by its politically and ecologically motivated discourse disseminated through recent policies of the European Commission and the local as well as international media. In the article, we question the very meaning of sustainability and examine the European Green Deal, the major political document issued by the EC in 2019. The main question pursued in the study is whether expectations verbalized in the Green Deal’s plans, programs, strategies, and developments hold up to the scrutiny of critical discourse analysis. We compare the Green Deal’s treatment of sustainability to how sustainability is presented in environmental and social science scholarship and point out that research, on the one hand, and the politically motivated discourse, on the other, do not correlate and often actually contradict each other. We conclude that sustainability discourse and its keywords, lexicon, and phraseology have become a channel through which political institutions in the EU such as the European Commission sideline crucial environmental issues and endorse their own presence. The Green Deal discourse shapes political and institutional power of the Commission and the EU.

scholarly journals e-Navigating in highly-constrained waters: a case study of the Vistula Lagoon

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Adam Weintrit ◽  
Jacek Pietraszkiewicz ◽  
Wiesław Piotrzkowski ◽  
Wojciech Tycholiz
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Global Solution ◽  
Transition Process ◽  
Practical Implementation ◽  
Vistula Lagoon ◽  
Digital Era ◽  
High Resolution Bathymetry ◽  
Marine Navigation ◽  
The Vistula Lagoon

Abstract In recent years the transition of marine navigation to the digital era has been gaining momentum. Implementation of e-Navigation solutions varies from country to country in terms of their priorities, goals, levels and effects. Maritime authorities in Poland have been setting the pace in this transition process, not only in Poland but also in general as a global solution. The most recent example is the planned deployment of a variety of e-Navigation tools in the Vistula Lagoon: from GNSS-RTK Ground-Based Augmentation System, to virtual and synthetic aids to navigation, high-resolution bathymetry and advanced navigational software for piloting. The major objectives of this paper are, first, to summarise recent dynamics in the e-Navigation field, and second, to present a practical implementation of the e-Navigation concept in the Vistula Lagoon area.

scholarly journals Sustainable Transport in the Danube Region

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6797
Author(s):  
Peter Mako ◽  
Andrej Dávid ◽  
Patrik Böhm ◽  
Sorin Savu
Keyword(s):  
Water Transport ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Environmentally Friendly ◽  
Road Transport ◽  
Transport Systems ◽  
Main Question ◽  
Inland Water ◽  
Danube Region ◽  
Inland Water Transport

Sustainability of transport systems is a key issue in transport. The main question is whether high levels of road and railway transport in areas along navigable waterways is an effective solution for this issue. The Danube waterway is an example. Generally, it is not observed that traffic performance is not as high as on the Rhine. This paper deals with the revelation of the available capacity of this waterway based on approximation functions and their comparison with real transport performances. This methodology points to the level of use of waterways. The connection of this model with the production of fossil fuels creates a basis for a case study. The case study in this paper offers a possibility for a sustainable and environmentally friendly transition from road transport to inland water transport on the example of specific transport routes. The main contribution of this paper is a presentation of the application of sustainable models of use transport capacity to increase the share of environmentally friendly and sustainable inland water transport. The conclusion based on the case study and materials is that the available capacity of inland water transport on the Danube could support the transition of traffic performances to sustainable and environmentally friendly means of transport.

scholarly journals How to Use Online Tools to Generate New Hypotheses for Mammary Gland Biology Research: A Case Study for Wnt7b

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yorick Bernardus Cornelis van de Grift ◽  
Nika Heijmans ◽  
Renée van Amerongen
Keyword(s):  
Mammary Gland ◽  
In Silico ◽  
Online Tools ◽  
Mammary Gland Biology ◽  
User Friendly ◽  
In Silico Analyses ◽  
Biology Research ◽  
Selection Of

AbstractAn increasing number of ‘-omics’ datasets, generated by labs all across the world, are becoming available. They contain a wealth of data that are largely unexplored. Not every scientist, however, will have access to the required resources and expertise to analyze such data from scratch. Fortunately, a growing number of investigators is dedicating their time and effort to the development of user friendly, online applications that allow researchers to use and investigate these datasets. Here, we will illustrate the usefulness of such an approach. Using regulation of Wnt7b expression as an example, we will highlight a selection of accessible tools and resources that are available to researchers in the area of mammary gland biology. We show how they can be used for in silico analyses of gene regulatory mechanisms, resulting in new hypotheses and providing leads for experimental follow up. We also call out to the mammary gland community to join forces in a coordinated effort to generate and share additional tissue-specific ‘-omics’ datasets and thereby expand the in silico toolbox.

scholarly journals Digital Tools as an Enabler for Educational and Training Processes: The Case Study of REFUGEEClassAssistance4 Teachers Project

Proceedings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 14
Author(s):  
Ourania Areta ◽  
Karel Van Isacker
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Education And Training ◽  
Working Environment ◽  
Digital Tools ◽  
Training Process ◽  
Training Activities ◽  
And Training

Digitalization has transformed all aspects of life, from social interactions to the working environment and education, something that accelerated with the emergence of COVID-19. The same stands for education and training activities, where the use of digital tools has been gradually advancing and become merely online because of the virus. This brought forth the need to discuss further the applications, benefits, and challenges of digital tools within the framework of the education and training process, and the need to study examples of successful applications. This study aims to support both these requirements by presenting the case study of REFUGEEClassAssistance4Teachers project and its outcomes.

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