Narrating New Normal: Graduate Student Symposium Report

This article summarizes the events at Narrating New Normal: Graduate Student Symposium, held virtually on May 17–18, 2021. The symposium was organized by a number of graduate students from the School of Communication and Film (previously named the School of Communication) and was supported by Global Storytelling: Journal of Digital and Moving Images and the School of Communication and Film. It was attended by an international roster of graduate students hailing from academic institutions and think tanks in different countries. The presentations focused on the usage of the phrase new normal, a popular term during crises, in various geopolitical, geocultural, and historical contexts. The essay discusses first the background and theoretical framework that informs the symposium. Conceived during the COVID-19 pandemic, a global crisis that has seen the use of the phrase new normal in describing the shifts in our daily lives or imaginations of a postcrisis future. Taking a critical approach, the symposium aims to interrogate how the phrase is used by different social institutions, corporations, and individuals in various crises, considering how it normalizes precarity. This essay also summarizes the keynote lecture delivered by professor Michal Krzyzanowski (Uppsala University) on the discursive strategies of normalization and mainstreaming. It also covers the papers and discussions across four panels that examined the different aspects of normalization and of new normal in its various incarnations: geopolitics, networked media spaces, normalization and precarity, and popular culture. The article ends by offering a synthesis of the major threads that tie the presentations and addresses together. It proposes that while the phrase new normal normalizes and obfuscates precarity, it also suggests that there are pockets of optimism during crises where we can witness human resilience and individual agency.

Ideological Polarization as a Deception Strategy in the Discourse of American Think Tanks: A Critical Discourse Analysis

Deception is an inseparable facet of political discourse in attaining strategic political gains though compromising public opinion. However, the employment of discursive deception strategies by the policy-making institutions of think tanks has not received due attention in the literature. The current study aims at exploring how the ideologizing deception strategies are utilized by the conservative American think tank of the Washington Institute to reproduce socio-political realities and re-shape public opinion. To fulfill this task, van Dijk’s (2000) notion of ideological polarization which shows positive self-representation and negative other representation is adopted to conduct a critical discourse analysis of four Arabic texts released with the main focus on four different political topics. Results reveal the centrality of employing deception strategies for the sake of realizing political wins for establishing an ideological hegemony while simultaneously polarizing an Us against Them extreme.

From discourse to practice: Orientalism, western policy and the Arab uprisings

Ten years on since the Arab uprisings we are in a position to assess how the nexus between knowledge, discourse and practice had a bearing on the trajectory of the protests. They represented hope and change for millions of Arabs in the region, but to what extent was that the case for onlookers in Europe and the US, and did western discourse on events in the Middle East matter? While the toppling of longstanding dictators was met with jubilation by Arab populations, it conversely created anxiety and fear in many western governments. This was reflected in the shift from an initially celebratory discourse in western commentary to disappointment, pessimism and disavowal of the uprisings. Within a year, op-eds and academic articles were asking whether the ‘Arab Spring’ had turned into an ‘Islamist winter’, reverting to Orientalist narratives about the inevitability of conflict, bloodshed and sectarianism in the Middle East. I argue this discourse had implications for the outcome of the uprisings as ‘latent Orientalism’ translated into ‘manifest Orientalism’ and western states hesitated to support opposition groups they initially encouraged and emboldened. I begin the article with a study of western discourse in the first year of the uprisings, which I then situate within a long durée history of western policy and representation of the Middle East. In the final sections I consider the role of scholarship and think tanks as mediators of Orientalist discourse.

Socio-Industrial Impacts of CPEC on the Pakistan: A Macro-Economic Study Within the Theoretical Context of Structural Anthropology

Since the inauguration of CPEC as a plan to reconstruct the olden road between Kashgar and Gwadar, Pakistan is also experiencing socio-industrial impacts at the macro level. In fact, Chinese industries have built such a technical structure within the Pakistani markets that largely affects the nature of the masses. Likewise, socio-cultural life including the business environment in Pakistan has also been rapidly affected by the Chinese arrival. Therefore, by collecting primary sources from Pakistani and Chinese ministries regarding Chinese imports towards Pakistan; the study examines how it is encircling daily route life along with human nature. At the same time, consultation with different organizations and think tanks assists the study in practically investigating the socio-industrial impacts of CPEC within the theoretical context of structural anthropology in different regions of Pakistan.

Anti-Corruption NGOs as Think Tanks

While anti-corruption scholars have analyzed and explained theoretically citizen-based anti- corruption approaches, studies on one of the most important aspects of a leading anti-corruption non-governmental organization (NGO) has been limited: the role of Transparency International (TI), in particular national branches of TI, as a think tank. Drawing on data from an interview with a former head of TI in the UK (TI-UK), this study will conduct a preliminary review and analysis of the effects of TI-UK in anti-corruption policymaking. The analysis shows that TI-UK was not only involved in the drafting of legislation but also had an impact on the outcomes during the legislation and initial implementation processes. This study is expected to contribute to understandings of anti-corruption policymaking processes and development of theories and practices of anti-corruption reforms.

South Sudan

When South Sudan gained independence in 2011, the whole world rejoiced. The country marked 10 years of independence on July 9, 2021, but on that occasion, as was the case for the previous decade, its people had very little to celebrate. The country had been gripped by both state violence and deadly ethnic feuds. The intense rifts in ethnic relations emanating from this cycle have become a major risk factor for mass atrocities. This paper aims to chronicle the atrocity crimes that have happened in South Sudan in the past 12 years, what drives them, and how they can be mitigated or stopped. It will also suggest what the international community can do to assist the South Sudanese to find justice, accountability for atrocity crimes and above all, how to reduce or end violence. The paper is based on a review of reports by human rights agencies, the United Nations agencies operating in South Sudan, independent researchers, academics and think tanks. It is also based on the author’s first-hand knowledge of the context and on numerous interviews with South Sudanese. The goal, however, is not to ask: what lessons have been learned from the ongoing efforts in the country?

“Europeanization” of Think Tanks in the EU Interest Group Politics

The article reveals the characteristics of think tanks as actors of the interest group politics in the European Union (EU). In this policy, they inspire public debate, conduct research, encourage new legislation and more effective public administration. A large number of European think tanks is engaged in interest group politics both at the national and supranational level of the EU governance, encouraging integration processes among the EU countries and Europeanization, which is the subject of analysis of this study. The strengthening of the role and importance of interest groups in EU policy is largely due to the increased power of the Unions institutions, since the introduction of new legislation and regulation common to all EU countries leads to the feedback from various groups that represent both public and private interests. Obviously, these groups, when interacting with the power institutions of the EU, strive for the most effective protection of their interests. For this purpose their representatives hold meetings with officials of the European Commission and the European Parliament, as well as other structures of the Union. This interaction, aiming at promoting their interests by means of lobbying and advocacy, has been regulated since 2011 by the Transparency Register, jointly created by the European Commission and the European Parliament. The purpose of this study is to analyze the quantitative performance of think tanks in the EU and to develop on its basis the Ranking of EU countries, according to the level of Europeanization of the think tanks representing them. From the research methods perspective, the study is based on the matching of statistical data from the Transparency Register and the Global Go To Think Tank Index, which serves the basis for this Ranking. The study of the ranking makes it possible to identify groups of countries with a high, medium and low level of Europeanization of think tanks in all EU countries as of January 31, 2019. The results revealed on the basis of the analysis demonstrate the heterogeneous nature of the Europeanization process of think tanks in different EU countries.

Do Business-Backed Think Tanks Represent Class Interests? The Co-evolution of Policy Learning and Economic Elites in the Canadian Knowledge Regime

Business-backed think tanks are often presented as representing the interests of economic elites. This article provides a more nuanced argument by using field theory to present the co-evolutionary dynamics between economic elites and other social forces. Three Canadian think tanks are examined to illustrate how different social forces can converge around business-backed think tanks, and how governance contexts and institutions shape these relationships. The paper also reflects on the kinds of learning these think tanks can enable depending on the kinds of actors that converge around them and on the forms of power that these actors represent.

Notes from the Editors, December 2021

buy this issue With the rapidly worsening capitalist demolition of the planetary environment and the expansion of ecosocialist movements in response, leading establishment think tanks, like the corporate-supported Breakthrough Institute, dedicated to promoting the ideology of "green capitalism" at any cost, have found themselves in a difficult place.