Dialogue and social participation in the context of education and development of youth in Poland

Background: The development of civil society is based on dialogue and participation. Young people are characterized by low interest in social activity and building a civil society, therefore it seems crucial to look at what education for participation looks like. Objectives: The authors considered the issue of dialogue and social participation in the context of education and development of young Poles. The authors drew attention to the forms and importance of civic dialogue, as well as diagnosed the goals, functions and deficits of civic education. Methodology: The topic was presented on the basis of the literature on the subject, the results of sociological research and hard data on the forms and scale of civic involvement in Poland, especially in Warsaw. Data analysis in the form of desk research was used. Results: Research by CBOS and KBPN shows that only 40% of young people who could take part in the 2018 elections for the first time in their lives intended to exercise their right. Also in the parliamentary elections in 2019, the youngest eligible respondents voted least frequently. Young Poles significantly less often than adults in general show involvement in the affairs of the local community, and are also characterized by an above-average lack of trust in others and increasing individualism. Conclusions: Civic involvement of young Poles and their participation in building a civic society are low and are accompanied by a high level of individualism combined with a lack of trust in others. Therefore, a more effective education for participation seems to be of key importance. Examples of good practice in this area, although still carried out on a small scale, are classes conducted for students in the field of public transport and tools for social participation developed and used by some local governments, such as the Civic Budget or Local Initiative.

Journalism Innovation

ABSTRACT – This paper discusses journalism innovation through experimental units known as “media labs”, addressing motivations, processes and outputs related to them. It is based on collaborative four-year research projects that mapped 123 labs within industry, civic society, and academia globally, with a focus on Latin America, North America and Europe. The data spans 45 interviews and 54 survey answers from lab leaders across 17 countries and covers 60 innovation outputs, with 30 closely related to media and journalism. The paper’s main theoretical frames incorporate open innovation and constructs from media innovation and media management. The results indicate that media labs are either within organisations or alongside them, producing projects systematically and experimentally as a reaction to digital disruption. Within an environment of scarcity, they catalyse innovation and combine technical and creative skills, unveiling solutions beyond new narratives or content-related innovations. RESUMO – Este artigo discute inovação em jornalismo através de laboratórios experimentais denominados media labs, abordando motivações, processos e resultados relacionados a eles. A investigação é baseada em quatro anos de projetos de pesquisa colaborativos que mapearam 123 laboratórios na indústria, sociedade civil e academia em âmbito global, especialmente na América Latina, América do Norte e Europa. Os dados abrangem 45 entrevistas e 54 questionários com líderes de laboratório de 17 países, assim como 60 resultados de inovação, 30 deles mais estreitamente relacionados à mídia e ao jornalismo. Os principais quadros teóricos incorporam inovação aberta e constructos da pesquisa em inovação e gerenciamento de mídia. Os resultados indicam que media labs estão dentro ou próximo de organizações, produzindo projetos de forma sistemática e experimental como uma reação à disrupção digital. Em um contexto de escassez, eles catalisam a inovação combinando habilidades técnicas e criativas, desenvolvendo soluções além da inovação em narrativas. RESUMEN – Este artículo analiza la Innovación en Periodismo a través de laboratorios experimentales denominados media labs, abordando motivaciones, procesos y resultados relacionados con ellos. La investigación se basa en cuatro años de proyectos de investigación colaborativa que mapearon 123 laboratorios en la industria, la sociedad civil y la academia a nivel mundial, especialmente en América Latina, América del Norte y Europa. Los datos comprenden 45 entrevistas y 54 cuestionarios con líderes de laboratorio de 17 países, así como 60 resultados de innovación, con especial atención a 30 de los cuales están más estrechamente relacionados con los medios y el periodismo. Los principales marcos teóricos incorporan la innovación abierta y los constructos de investigación en innovación y gestión de medios. Los resultados indican que los media labs están dentro o cerca de las organizaciones, produciendo proyectos de forma sistemática y experimental como reacción a la disrupción digital. En un contexto de escasez, catalizan la innovación combinando habilidades técnicas y creativas, desarrollando soluciones más allá de la innovación narrativa.

GAMES OF HUNGER: THE POLITICS OF FAMINE, STATE-BUILDING PROCESSES AND CONTEMPORARY HUNGER STRIKES IN EUROPE – THE CASES OF NORTHERN IRELAND AND UKRAINE

The famines and periods of prolonged hunger that took place in Europe in the last centuries had a complex social dynamics and substantial transformative potential that still influence European politics. Dramatic cultural representations of hunger and starvation became deeply engaged in various modern nationalist narrations in order to open up new sources of political legitimacy for newly arising nation states. The periods of the Great Famine and Holodomor were at the same time moments of an extremely intense consolidation of Irish and Ukrainian national identities and the collective mindsets of multiple communities. Those identities became major political forces on the peripheries of the Old Continent. Hence, some strategies of transforming the experience of hunger into politically beneficial strategies of civic resistance were developed. Those tactics determined the future roles of both political and civil actors in sovereignty conflicts. Using a comparative approach, this paper explores the way in which the state-building processes in Ukraine and Northern Ireland in the 20th and 21st centuries were framed by famines, the raise of civic society, hunger strikes, and how the mindset of food scarcity grew into the nations’ characters. The mindset has turned into a serious drive for some political projects in Ukraine and Ireland to become modern nation states integrated with increasingly globalized European societies. The compelling and enchanting cultural narrations on hunger are profoundly up-to-date and political, as well as European phenomena, and as such should be analyzed – through the conceptual lens of modernity and postmodernity, and the international forms of political and economic coercions.

“At least I have a house to live in”: Māori and Pacific young people’s hopes and fears about the future

<p>Young people are often represented as the leaders of the next generation and much attention is given to the need for them to become more active participants in shaping the nation’s future. Over the years, education policy makers, health officials, government representatives in the criminal justice and welfare systems have sought ways of involving New Zealand’s youth more closely in civic society as they grapple with a daunting range of problems, many of which are likely to significantly worsen in the coming years. Despite these efforts, the views of some of the most economically and politically marginalised indigenous and/or racialized young people continue to be elusive and as a result a less nuanced understanding is available about how young people think about their lives in times ahead. This study explores the hopes and fears that marginalised urban Māori and Pacific youth hold about the future and how they establish a sometimes fragile sense of belonging in precarious and uncertain times. In this project, Māori and Pacific young people were invited to discuss their aspirations and anxieties about the future and how these ideas are influenced by their everyday local ‘places’ in the present. Two participant groups were involved in the project; one included Māori youth in an urban centre where there were few opportunities for unemployed young people while the other group included Pacific youth living in a city area where many families experience high levels of economic hardship. The research tracks their views about who they are now as young people growing up in a complex and increasingly divided society and who they might become in the years ahead. Taking a place-based approach, focus groups and walk-along interviews were conducted in two New Zealand cities. As the study progressed, the participants began to talk about the significance of hope, and lack of hope, in their everyday lives. Drawing on the work of Paulo Freire, it is argued that informed hope can be a powerful humanizing force in young people’s lives and the study suggests that when youth have a strong foundation of hope and belonging, they are often capable of becoming active agents of social change.</p>

“At least I have a house to live in”: Māori and Pacific young people’s hopes and fears about the future

<p>Young people are often represented as the leaders of the next generation and much attention is given to the need for them to become more active participants in shaping the nation’s future. Over the years, education policy makers, health officials, government representatives in the criminal justice and welfare systems have sought ways of involving New Zealand’s youth more closely in civic society as they grapple with a daunting range of problems, many of which are likely to significantly worsen in the coming years. Despite these efforts, the views of some of the most economically and politically marginalised indigenous and/or racialized young people continue to be elusive and as a result a less nuanced understanding is available about how young people think about their lives in times ahead. This study explores the hopes and fears that marginalised urban Māori and Pacific youth hold about the future and how they establish a sometimes fragile sense of belonging in precarious and uncertain times. In this project, Māori and Pacific young people were invited to discuss their aspirations and anxieties about the future and how these ideas are influenced by their everyday local ‘places’ in the present. Two participant groups were involved in the project; one included Māori youth in an urban centre where there were few opportunities for unemployed young people while the other group included Pacific youth living in a city area where many families experience high levels of economic hardship. The research tracks their views about who they are now as young people growing up in a complex and increasingly divided society and who they might become in the years ahead. Taking a place-based approach, focus groups and walk-along interviews were conducted in two New Zealand cities. As the study progressed, the participants began to talk about the significance of hope, and lack of hope, in their everyday lives. Drawing on the work of Paulo Freire, it is argued that informed hope can be a powerful humanizing force in young people’s lives and the study suggests that when youth have a strong foundation of hope and belonging, they are often capable of becoming active agents of social change.</p>

Arjen turvallisuus ja muuttoliikkeet

This book approaches contemporary migration to Finland from the perspective of everyday security, presenting an alternative view to theories that examine the links between migration and security from the perspective of securitisation. By treating everyday security as a theoretical concept and as empirical lived reality, the book foregrounds migrants’ experiences of (in)security, as well as the perceptions of individuals and groups whose lives are touched by migration. Empirical studies investigate the ways in which security is produced at various levels, transnationally, and in multiple locations where encounters between long-term residents and newcomers occur, highlighting the roles of the welfare state, civic society, and the media. The book explores how everyday security is constructed between interdependent actors on personal, community and societal levels, concluding that the production of everyday security is a mutually beneficial, yet at times painstaking, process for all participants.

Soviet Politics and Journalism under Mikhail Gorbachev’s Perestroika and Glasnost: Why Hopes Failed

The terms perestroika (literally, "transformation") and glasnost (literally, "transparency ") refer to the social change that took place in the Soviet Union in the late 1980s. Then USSR leader, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Mikhail Gorbachev, introduced perestroika as a necessary action to improve the nation’s economy and its international relations. Glasnost was meant to promote effective discussions regarding the country’s existing problems and shortcomings. However, only a few years following their instatement, both processes did not improve the sociopolitical situation. On the contrary, they led to the country’s collapse. This article seeks to answer why gracious intentions, meant to actualize the hopes and dreams of the Soviet people, eventually resulted in tremendously difficult times. Special attention is paid to the role of the Soviet media, which became a catalyst for many social problems. The authors raise the issue of the media’s level of responsibility during this social transformation, which appeared to be one of the most crucial conditions for its successful implementation. Keywords: authoritarian culture, social transformation, civic society, perestroika, glasnost, Soviet media

Can an indigenous media model enrol wider non-Indigenous audiences in alternative perspectives to the ‘mainstream’

This paper offers a theoretical model to analyse an example of Indigenous media through an Indigenous lens and discusses its potential to increase audiences in other alternative media. Adapted from New Zealand Māori filmmaker and philosopher Barry Barclay’s idea of the ‘fourth cinema’ and a metaphorical ‘communications marae’, 1 the model has been applied to New Zealand’s Indigenous broadcaster, Māori Television. This article discusses the model and suggests that the ‘communications marae’ has the potential to be used by non-mainstream media providers to, not only address their own audiences, but also to enrol wider communities in alternative perspectives to the ‘mainstream’. Research has demonstrated how Indigenous broadcasting can serve its own audience while also attracting wider, non-Indigenous audiences. However, this paper’s focus is a case study of migrants engaging with Māori Television because it is migrants who frequently operate outside of established power relationships and represent an often unrecognised niche audience segment in mainstream media. The model demonstrates the potential pedagogical role of the broadcaster and how its content can make a positive difference to migrants’ lives and attitudes towards Indigenous people through its ability to counter the, often negative, representations of Indigeneity in mainstream media. Outside of Māori Television, migrants have limited access to an Indigenous perspective on the nation’s issues and concerns, which calls into question both democracy and migrants’ ability to engage in civic society. Migrants need information to negotiate and weigh up important tensions and polarities, to understand multiple perspectives inherent to democratic living and to evaluate issues of social justice and to solve problems based on the principles of equity. Indigenous media, as in all alternative media, has a role to play in questioning or challenging accepted thinking and to present counter hegemonic discourses to all citizens in participatory democratic societies.

SOCIAL MEDIA ACTIVISM MOVEMENT IN KAZAKHSTAN ON ISSUES OF RAPE AND SEXUAL ABUSE

This paper analyzes several aspects concerning the national issues of rape and sexual harassment incidences in the context of Kazakhstan via a discourse analysis approach of social media activist movements. The article touches upon crucial social media movements, such as ‘#MeTooTalgo’, ‘NeMolchi.kz’ or ‘#OrtashaEmes’, which all emerged after the 2016 incident with the rape case in a Talgo Train, causing eventually an upward rising tendency for awareness-raising social media campaigns across the country. Alongside that, the paper also provides insight into the discussion about the societal influence of the contextual conservative patriarchal state on women, the factors causing women to become victims of sexual and physical abuse as well the power of the social media as a tool and platform for catalyzing the enraged voices of women into influential instruments for societal changes. On top of that, this paper also looks at how the movements of social media activism have influenced government decisions and law amendments in the country towards tightening legislations. The paper follows a discourse analysis research methodology, where only secondary sources of information are used and referred to. In conclusion, the significance of this paper is that it tries to enlighten and bring forth one of the societal problems that women and under-aged girls in Kazakhstan face, and which has yet to be accepted as a “societal problem” by the society itself. Hence, despite the conservative regime with a still developing but much promising civic society, social media has shown to be ‘a free fighting space’ for those who want to voice their problems and for those who want to be heard.

Young women in Morocco: Perceptions about participation in the public sphere and gender equality

From a qualitative research in the cities of Fez and Meknes, this article analyses young women’s participation in the public sphere in Morocco. Specifically, we have had as reference the changes that have occurred since the so-called Arab Spring of 2011 where youths and feminism played an obvious role. Findings show that nine years after the Arab Spring, there has been no substantial improvements in the lives of Moroccan women in terms of gender equality. However, it is striking that they are very much present in participating in the public sphere from ‘grassroots’ (civic society, trade unions, etc.) levels where they find resources and spaces to get-together, create opportunities and make further progress in the fight for their rights.