Statistical Literacy as a Way to Achieve Social Consensus

The maintenance of civil peace and harmony in the Russian state from time immemorial has been defined as a priority that allows maintaining the integrity of both state and territorial. Global processes taking place in the world, epidemic waves of viruses, incessant local wars, diligent attempts to separate people and peoples bring to the fore the need to consolidate society in order to ensure the national security of the country. In this context, the importance of statistics increases, which significantly affects the perception of the dominant values by society, forms the attitude of people to the state policy being pursued. At the same time, the understanding of statistical information (figures, data) in a number of cases does not correspond to reality, making it difficult to adequately assess the existing situation, which is associated with an insufficient level of statistical literacy of the population, officials and specialists in various fields of activity.

Making climate action meaningful: Communication practices in the New Zealand climate movement

<p>The climate crisis requires urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; however, ‘business as usual’ continues to fuel further increases. Instead of the social change needed to safeguard the wellbeing of people and the planet, there has been an unpromising mix of active resistance, lukewarm concern, lack of engagement, and lack of hope. In the face of this, climate communicators seek to make climate action relevant and meaningful to people, thereby mobilising them to create a social consensus on climate action and the political will for change. A core dynamic in climate communication is the balance between, on the one hand, speaking to the facts of the climate crisis and to what makes climate action meaningful to climate communicators themselves, and on the other, speaking in a way that is meaningful to those being communicated with. If the balance is right, climate communication will empower people, thereby helping translate belief in, and concern about, the climate crisis into behavioural change and political engagement, cumulatively creating social change. If the balance is wrong, however, communication efforts risk not connecting with people, emotionally overwhelming them with the weight of the climate crisis, or overly diluting the message, leading to no effect, or to a negative effect. An important way in which this dynamic manifests is in the balance between moral and economic framing. Morality and economics are two fundamental elements of what gives a sense of meaningfulness to climate action, and therefore underlie decision-making around both climate action and climate communication. Combinations of moral and economic framing are of particular interest in the way they call for radical action while speaking to people’s desires for security and prosperity. The climate movement is at the heart of efforts towards social change and the creation of a social consensus on climate action. It is therefore to the experiences of climate movement participants that I turn to explore these issues. I take a movement-centred activist scholarship approach to research on climate communication decision-making via interviews with fourteen members of the New Zealand climate movement. Highlighting the importance of knowledge development within social movements, I seek to contribute to activist and academic understanding of effective climate communication.</p>

Whose Sidewalk?

Home is a nodal point in a series of polarities, including family-community; space-place; inside-outside; private-public; domestic-social. These may not be stable but seem both solidified and undermined as they play out their meaning and practice in and through the home. The “public” is traditionally the state’s domain, while the “private” the citizens’. But where does “private” end and “public” begin? Can a border or boundary be placed between the two? Is such a boundary culture-specific or universal? Is it static or dynamic? Scholars often perceive borders as barriers and bridges, porous and impenetrable, and border studies have shown that urban entities have their own internal and external borders. I argue that such internal urban micro-boundaries can be found in the domain of domestic space, separating the private from the public, and that they are dynamic and constantly negotiated. Not necessarily marked, they are acknowledged by a mutual and tacit agreement, a social and cultural consensus. In this paper, I focus on common expansions of private into public space in Limassol, Cyprus, and the ways in which, this social consensus is achieved through the use of several tactics. As I illustrate, all these tactics seem to transform public space into private, on a symbolic level. The paper’s contribution lies in the examination of this type of boundary, which has received little academic attention, as well as in the introduction of the term “tactics of inhibition.”

Making climate action meaningful: Communication practices in the New Zealand climate movement

<p>The climate crisis requires urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; however, ‘business as usual’ continues to fuel further increases. Instead of the social change needed to safeguard the wellbeing of people and the planet, there has been an unpromising mix of active resistance, lukewarm concern, lack of engagement, and lack of hope. In the face of this, climate communicators seek to make climate action relevant and meaningful to people, thereby mobilising them to create a social consensus on climate action and the political will for change. A core dynamic in climate communication is the balance between, on the one hand, speaking to the facts of the climate crisis and to what makes climate action meaningful to climate communicators themselves, and on the other, speaking in a way that is meaningful to those being communicated with. If the balance is right, climate communication will empower people, thereby helping translate belief in, and concern about, the climate crisis into behavioural change and political engagement, cumulatively creating social change. If the balance is wrong, however, communication efforts risk not connecting with people, emotionally overwhelming them with the weight of the climate crisis, or overly diluting the message, leading to no effect, or to a negative effect. An important way in which this dynamic manifests is in the balance between moral and economic framing. Morality and economics are two fundamental elements of what gives a sense of meaningfulness to climate action, and therefore underlie decision-making around both climate action and climate communication. Combinations of moral and economic framing are of particular interest in the way they call for radical action while speaking to people’s desires for security and prosperity. The climate movement is at the heart of efforts towards social change and the creation of a social consensus on climate action. It is therefore to the experiences of climate movement participants that I turn to explore these issues. I take a movement-centred activist scholarship approach to research on climate communication decision-making via interviews with fourteen members of the New Zealand climate movement. Highlighting the importance of knowledge development within social movements, I seek to contribute to activist and academic understanding of effective climate communication.</p>

Preschoolers Learn New Moral and Conventional Norms from Direct Experiences

By observing others, children can learn about different types of norms, including moral norms rooted in concerns for welfare and rights, and social conventions based on directives from authority figures or social consensus. Two studies examined how preschoolers and adults constructed and applied knowledge about novel moral and conventional norms from their direct social experiences. Participants watched a video of a novel prohibited action that caused pain to a victim (moral conditions) or a sound from a box (conventional conditions), and then saw a transgressor puppet, who had either watched the video alongside the participant or not, engage in the prohibited action. Preschoolers and adults rapidly constructed distinct moral and conventional evaluations about the novel actions. These distinctions were evident across several response modalities that have often been studied separately, including judgments, reasoning, and actions. However, children did not reliably track the puppet’s knowledge of the novel norms. These studies provide experimental support for the idea that children and adults construct distinct moral and conventional norms from social experiences, which in turn guide judgments, reasoning, and behavior.

Preschoolers Learn New Moral and Conventional Norms from Direct Experiences

By observing others, children can learn about different types of norms, including moral norms rooted in concerns for welfare and rights, and social conventions based on directives from authority figures or social consensus. Two studies examined how preschoolers and adults constructed and applied knowledge about novel moral and conventional norms from their direct social experiences. Participants watched a video of a novel prohibited action that caused pain to a victim (moral conditions) or a sound from a box (conventional conditions), and then saw a transgressor puppet, who had either watched the video alongside the participant or not, engage in the prohibited action. Preschoolers and adults rapidly constructed distinct moral and conventional evaluations about the novel actions. These distinctions were evident across several response modalities that have often been studied separately, including judgments, reasoning, and actions. However, children did not reliably track the puppet’s knowledge of the novel norms. These studies provide experimental support for the idea that children and adults construct distinct moral and conventional norms from social experiences, which in turn guide judgments, reasoning, and behavior.

Lübnan’da Ortak Kimliğin Oluşumunda Sedir Devrimi’nin Rolü

The Lebanese lands, which hosted many different ethnic and religious identities under the Ottoman Empire's rule, could not bring together the plural and distinctive differences within it on common ground. The most crucial factor for the lack of common ground is the Mutasarrifate system established with the interference of France and other European states under the Ottoman rule in the country. The Mutasarrifate system's institutionalization and the building of administrative changes on this system in Lebanon's historical breaking moments brought the fragmented structure to the present day. As a result, this political system based on ethnic and religious differences prevented a Lebanese state citizen identity based on common rights and responsibilities. In the continuation and afterward of the demonstrations that started right after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in Lebanon in 2005, a broad social consensus ground could not be established. Considered as the reflection of color revolutions in the Middle East, the Cedar Revolution could not produce more democratic and inclusive results as claimed.

Social Security Policy in Response to the Pandemic COVID-19: A Case Study from Vietnam

On the international scale of measurement, Vietnam stands out as a country that has successfully accomplished the objectives of minimizing the spread of COVID-19. These objectives have been achieved through several factors, including the Government’s commitment, excellent success of the health service, and the “wholeheartedness” of the armed forces, especially the social consensus, which is clearly reflected in the decisions and policies made. Among those crucial decisions, the stable social security system has been the key priority of the government of Vietnam because it provides a strong foundation for the disadvantaged, who are not expected to overcome the pandemic based on their low-level “resistance.” The article aims at illustrating Vietnam’s social security interventions and strategies when faced the global COVID-19 pandemic and it also draws some experience that need to be referenced in implementing Social Security Society witnessed from Vietnamese reality.