Bridging divides : what can cities do? a summary of the public forum held on May 13, 2015, at Ryerson University

Our cities are facing growing divides such as uneven access to services and housing, congestion and transit shortfalls, income polarisation, and political divisions. This project brings together experts across disciplines to collaborate and develop solutions for actionable change in the GTHA. This report summarizes this unique public forum where three GTA mayors joined urban experts to propose strategies aimed at bridging the growing divides in our cities.

Bridging divides : what can cities do? a summary of the public forum held on May 13, 2015, at Ryerson University

Our cities are facing growing divides such as uneven access to services and housing, congestion and transit shortfalls, income polarisation, and political divisions. This project brings together experts across disciplines to collaborate and develop solutions for actionable change in the GTHA. This report summarizes this unique public forum where three GTA mayors joined urban experts to propose strategies aimed at bridging the growing divides in our cities.

Negotiating Food Heritage Interpretations: Experiences of a Project at the Estonian National Museum

The article examines varied interpretations of food heritage in contemporary Estonia, relying on the authors’ experiences of a three-year research and development project at the Estonian National Museum (ENM). The study focuses on the museum researchers’ collaboration with different stakeholders, representing small entrepreneurs and the public and non-profit sectors. The authors tackle the partners’ expectations and outcomes of diverse cooperational initiatives and the opportunities and challenges of a contemporary museum as a public forum for discussions on cultural heritage. The project revealed that diverse, complementary, and contested food heritage interpretations exist side-by-side on the Estonian foodscape. Additionally, the project enabled the authors to become better aware of the researcher’s role in the heritagisation process and of the museum as a place for negotiating the meanings and values of food culture.

Reporting Issues of Adverse Effect of COVID-19 Vaccine in India: What We Know or Don’t Know?

Vaccines for COVID-19 in India have been allowed to be administered among large pool of adult population. In-depth knowledge regarding the adverse effect of vaccine is scarce till date, mainly due to the lack of reporting, analysing and making the data publicly available. Informed choice by the recipients is totally barred and further, compensation associated with the vaccination is also compromised. These important issues need to be highlighted in the public forum for greater awareness and action.

Protect the Filter Bubbles

In 2018, Knight v. Trump sparked discussion about the boundaries between government and citizen speech on social media. Some scholars argued that the courts erred in their decision to characterize the speech in question as government speech. Others argued that the court decided correctly and claimed that the use of forum analysis was necessary to protect both the health of our democracy and the First Amendment rights of social media users. Within the context of algorithmic curation of social media feeds, this article argues that (1) social media platforms are not designated public forums due to the algorithmic curation of online user speech, (2) due to this, the public forum doctrine should not have been applied to the Knight v. Trump case, (3) despite this, user speech rights should be protected online. It also reviews proposed models of thinking that could address unresolved issues of the case.

"We May Not Be Goliath But We Have David’s Sling"

This thesis focuses on New Zealanders’ perception of the Home Guard through a specific lens of culture demonstrated through wartime printed newspapers across New Zealand. These newspapers allowed for a public forum for New Zealander’s thoughts on the Home Guard, enabling a national debate on the purpose of the Home Guard over the course of the Second World War. Critically, these print newspapers and public opinion drastically influenced the direction of the Home Guard, illuminated the problems the Home Guard faced, and often received a response from the New Zealand Government. The Home Guard’s initial difficulty with recruitment, the impressment of private rifles by the New Zealand government after a failed voluntary campaign, and the later enactment of compulsory enrollment, firmly question the realistic effectiveness of the Home Guard. Competing narratives between the New Zealand government and New Zealanders, both involved in the Home Guard and not affiliated, collectively influenced the Home Guard from 1940 until 1942, as New Zealand feared invasion by the larger Japanese Empire.

CHRISTMAS READINGS-2021: TOPICS AND PROBLEMS OF THE SCIENTIFIC FORUM

The article provides an overview of the history, socio-cultural traditions, conceptual content and research prospects of the largest scientific and practical conference of the Krasnoyarsk Territory - Krasnoyarsk Regional Christmas Educational Readings (Krasnoyarsk, January 2021). The article contains a thesis description of the reports presented in the framework of the thematic section "Church and Culture", as well as substantiation of the relevance of the research papers presented by the authors in the context of the prospects for the development of the religious and public forum under consideration.

Unpacking the democratic affordances of CrowdLaw concept and practice: ‘It feels like being part of the game’

This research draws on the CrowdLaw concept and the affordances framework to inquire how Senador Virtual, a technological innovation in the Chilean Senate, could contribute to creating more democratic processes and outcomes, and consequently, whether the platform promoted or enabled more equality in decision-making processes and better citizen engagement. Based on a mixed-methods approach of statistical analysis, interviews, and a digital ethnography, we studied the 16-year-old web platform. Our research shows that the platform gave rise to five latent democratic affordances which are not always fully leveraged. Of these, three had already been discussed within the CrowdLaw literature: (1) capture a variety of viewpoints; (2) generate insights that illuminate the lawmaking process; and (3) serve as a device for communication between citizens and senators. Notwithstanding, we also found two additional affordances not normally attributed to CrowdLaw: (4) create a civilized public forum; and (5) foster civility among the users that engage with it. We suggest that in order for these affordances to be fully leveraged, the CrowdLaw process must be designed to complement traditional lawmaking processes, including a reliable methodology for processing citizen input. Only when the above is accomplished, will this technological facilitator produce actual democratic outcomes.

Grundrechtsbindung Privater

The effect of fundamental rights among private individuals is breaking away from the usual patterns as a result of recent decisions by the Federal Constitutional Court. The work not only provides terminological clarity, but also elaborates the criteria that directly bind private individuals to fundamental rights. The author then looks at emerging constellations and examines the binding nature of fundamental rights there. The operator of Facebook fulfils both criteria described in more detail. These are the opening of a "public forum" and a predominant position of power. It is thus bound by fundamental rights. SCHUFA is not bound by this obligation, also because it is kept in check by existing (data protection) provisions of the legislator.

Odyssey' Scientific Debate: Rhetoric STEM Education

Τhe Erasmus+ KA2 Odyssey project aims at introducing debates on STEM topics in European schools for cultivating the scientific, argumentative and critical literacy as well as the communication skills of students in secondary education (13-19 years old). In Greece, the testing phase (October 2019-June 2020) involved 18 STEM educators and 126 students from 11 schools. The debate format, which combined elements of Oxford and Public Forum, aimed at making students realize that scientific ideas and practices are not absolute, objective and immutable and therefore require discussions based on convincing arguments supported by relevant and sufficient evidence. The first findings of the project were encouraging, revealing that the rhetorical turn in the teaching of science through debates is purposeful for promoting advances in the modern STEM classroom despite the barriers that hinder analogous efforts.