Proposing a Three-Dimensional Normative Model for Political Communication

The last 10 years or more will be remembered as a time of perpetual crisis. Against this backdrop, there is an urgent need for effective leadership and for citizens of the world and their leaders to come together to achieve collective goals. However, various studies have highlighted the deleterious effects on democracy of the current trajectory political discourse is taking. Increasing voices in academia call for a shift towards a more citizen-centric political communication. The authors respond to such calls by proposing a new model for political communication that focuses on three dimensions, namely service ethos, inclusivity, and empathy (3D model). In this chapter, the authors conceptualise these dimensions and build a normative model for their application while discuss the relevant shortcomings and current issues as they relate to contemporary political communication.

Technologies of Manipulation During the Presidential Elections of 1999 in Ukraine

The article examines the election campaigns of the late twentieth century. in Ukraine and proved, that they operated manipulation technologies. The state was democratizing the political system, adoption of new election legislation, transition to a mixed electoral system; political pluralism was formed, the number of parties has increased significantly, the struggle for power intensified. With each subsequent election campaign (presidential, parliamentary), the political struggle intensified, and voter engagement technologies have become more vulnerable. The author proves, that the ways and purposes of application of technologies depend on motivations of subjects of the power, as: obtaining, exercising and retaining power; the desire to achieve political and social results, most profitable for pragmatic actors, although this may run counter to collective goals. In Ukraine, democratic processes are not yet complete, traditions of democracy and stable political institutions are absent. Instead, manipulation technologies, electoral engineering, which are aimed at limiting the actions of competitors and creating favorable conditions for their own victory. This prevents the formation of certain restraints, barriers to manipulation technologies, familiar to many civilized democracies.

Perpectives on Gender: An Investigative Study of Gender Equity in Children [Espejuelos para el género: Apuestas investigativas por la equidad en la infancia]

The construction of gender identities begins at a very early age. These identities are consolidated through the influence of various socialization actors, among which the family, the school, and the media stand out. Therefore, addressing gender issues is necessary from childhood to ensure that girls and boys reach adulthood as women and men capable of establishing more equitable, horizontal, collaborative, and healthy gender relations. For this reason, since 2012, Perspectives on Gender [Espejuelos para el Género] has conducted a school research project, focusing on the second cycle of primary education in Cuba. The collective goals of the two phases of the project were to analyze gender constructs in girls and boys as well as those associated with actors involved in the children’s formal and informal education, such as family, teachers and the media. The basic methodological design was conceived from arts-based action research. Up until now, the persistence of sexist gender stereotypes has been identified in the scenarios and subjects under study although, at a discursive level, some gender equity is noticeable. This article describes the main results of the project. Editors' note: The English version of this article is a translation from the original Spanish, and this special feature is a result of a partnership between IJPS and the University of Havana, Cuba. The original Spanish article appears after the English translation.

The role of relational governance in innovation platform growth: the context of living labs

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the role of relational governance in innovation platform development, specifically investigating the context of living labs. Design/methodology/approach Two longitudinal case studies are presented, derived from auto-ethnographic narratives, qualitative interviews and secondary documents, which cover the critical stages in the development of each living lab. Findings Empirical insights demonstrate the relevance of coordination activities based on joint planning and activities to support innovation platform development across different stages. The governance role of research actors as platform activators is also identified. Practical implications The paper offers a useful perspective for identifying collective goals between living lab actors and aligning joint activities across different stages of living lab development. Social implications The case provides insights into the challenges and opportunities for collaboration between academia, industry and users to support sustainable construction innovation. Originality/value A relational governance mode is identified, going beyond top down or bottom up approaches, which contributes a new understanding of how collective goals align within a relational space.

Publishing more than reviewing? Some ethical musings on the sustainability of the peer review process

Based on our editorial experience, and acknowledging the regular editor grievances about reviewer disengagement at professional meeting and conferences, in this article we argue that the review system is in need of significant repair. We argue that this has emerged because an audit culture in academia and individual incentives (like reduced teaching loads or publication bonuses) have eroded the willingness of individuals to engage in the collective enterprise of peer-reviewing each others’ work on a quid pro quo basis. In response to this, we emphasise why it is unethical for potential reviewers to disengage from the review process, and outline the implications for our profession if colleagues publish more than they review. Designed as a political intervention in response to reviewer disengagement, we aim to ‘politicise’ the review process and its consequences for the sustainability of the scholarly community. We propose three pathways towards greater reviewer engagement: (i) senior scholars setting the right kind of ‘reviewer’ example; (ii) journals introducing recognition awards to foster a healthy reviewer progression path and (iii) universities and accreditation bodies moving to explicitly recognise reviewing in workload models and evaluations. While all three proposals have merit, the latter point is especially powerful in fostering reviewer engagement as it aligns individual and institutional goals in ‘measurable’ ways. In this way, ironically, the audit culture can be subverted to address the imbalance between individual and collective goals.

IMAGES OF THE FUTURE OF RUSSIA AND YOUTH POLICY: A SOCIO-PHILOSOPHICAL ANALYSIS

Авторы проводят анализ дискурса «образ будущего» в современной социально-политической мысли. Разделяя позицию З. Баумана о риторической манифестации власти о приватизации будущего, авторы обращают внимание на имманентно присущую природе политики функцию целеполагания, в том числе выработке и реализации коллективных целей, ориентированных на будущее. Анализируя молодежную политику в современной России, авторы приходят к выводу, что российское государство стремится адаптировать запросы молодых людей под собственные образы будущего великой и сильной державы, расставляя акценты на воспитание гражданственности и патриотизма. Авторы полагают, что для повышения эффективности государственного управления при разработке национальных проектов необходимо учитывать взгляд молодежи на будущее страны. The authors analyze the discourse «the image of the future» in modern sociopolitical thought. Sharing the position of Z. Bauman on the rhetorical manifestation of the authorities about the privatization of the future, the authors pay attention to the goalsetting function inherent in the nature of politics, including the development and implementation of collective goals oriented towards the future. Analyzing the youth policy in modern Russia, the authors come to the conclusion that the Russian state seeks to adapt the needs of young people to its own images of the future of a great and strong power, placing emphasis on the education of citizenship and patriotism. The authors believe that in order to improve the efficiency of public administration, when developing national projects, it is necessary to take into account the view of young people on the future of the country.

Modeling Institutions in Socio-Ecosystems

In socio-ecosystems, human activities are structured in time and space by interactions between different regulatory systems with different collective goals. These regulatory systems are modeled by institutions and organizations, and the regulatory mechanisms by norms applied to agents in Multi-Agent Systems (MAS). However, little is said about sharing resources, space and time. In particular, temporal and spatial expressivity is often limited in MAS for institutions and norms. This research proposes an institutional MAS model capable of representing multiple institutions and norms in the socio-ecosystem, in order to account for the multiplicity of interactions through agents, resources, space and time. We propose an extension of Descriptive Logic for the description of institutions and norms, and use Allen's algebra and the RCC8 to represent time and space. The resulting model allows us to know the norms applicable to an agent located socially, spatially and temporally.

“It's Like a Kick in the Teeth”: The Emergence of Novel Predictors of Burnout in Frontline Workers During Covid-19

The context of Covid-19 has offered an unusual cultural landscape for examining how workers view their own position relative to others, and how individuals respond to prolonged exposure to workplace stress across different sectors and cultures. Through our recent work tracking the well-being of frontline workers in the UK and Ireland (the CV19 Heroes project), we have uncovered additional psychological factors that have not been accounted for in previous models of occupational stress or burnout. In recent months, frontline workers have worked to protect the community from the threat of SARS-CoV-2 and, simultaneously, have evaluated their perceptions of collective efforts of others as either congruent or incongruent with collective goals (e.g., lowered mortality and morbidity): we call this novel aspect solidarity appraisal. These frontline workers have been hailed as heroes, which we argue has led to the creation of an implicit psychological contract (the hero contract) between frontline workers and the public. Here, the heroes are willing to “go above and beyond” for the greater good, with the expectation that we (the public) do our part by adhering to public health guidelines. Where frontline workers perceive incongruence between the words and actions of others in working toward collective goals this drives negative affect and subsequent burnout. In this perspective article, we evaluate the cultural context of the pandemic in the UK and Ireland and suggest important socio-cultural factors that contribute to perceptions of solidarity, and how this may relate to burnout and worker welfare during and beyond the pandemic context.

The Changing Face of US and Global Capitalism

A rising tide of crises—from the Covid-19 pandemic to climate change to widening inequality -- threaten global well-being and the advances in public health of the last century. This chapter analyses how changes in 21st-century capitalism have made it more difficult for people in the United States and elsewhere to find what they need to protect the health of their families and communities. It shows how globalization, the rise of the financial sector, privatization, deregulation, and monopoly concentration have undermined people’s capacity to find healthy food, adequate education, affordable health care, safe and adequately paid work, non-polluting transportation, and meaningful connections to others. It spells out the costs of a worldview shaped by the inevitable logic of markets that requires people to align their individual and collective goals and aspirations with that logic and highlights the many organizations and movements that seek alternative visions for the future.

Innovation in sports organizations

This paper analyzes the distinctive features of innovation in sport. Namely, the authors assess the various components of the innovation process in sports organizations. It was determined that the key aspect of sports innovation is the need to balance between individual organizational and collective goals. Sports organizations form meta-organizations that broaden the innovation potential by providing access to a larger resource and knowledge base as well as facilitating constant information flow. In conclusion this study proposes an approach to collecting innovation data on sports organizations.