Trust and authority in the age of mediatised politics

This article examines the role of trust in the age of mediatised politics. Authority, we suggest, can be successfully enacted despite the disrupted nature of the public sphere if both rational and moral trust are utilised to formulate validity claims. Drawing from Maarten A. Hajer's theorisation of authority in contemporary politics, we develop a model of how political actors and institutions as well as the media employ both rational and moral trust performances to generate authority. Analysing a Finnish case of controversial investigative journalism on defence intelligence, we show how the media in network governance need to critically evaluate the authority performances of political actors while at the same time enacting their own authority performances to retain their position within the governing network and to manufacture trust among networked publics. This volatile position can lead to situations where the media compete for authority with traditional political institutions.

An Analysis of the Dynamics of the Legitimation Processes of Innovations in Open Source Software:

Within the Open Source Software (OSS) literature, there is a lack of studies addressing the legitimation processes of innovations that are born in OSS. This study sets out to analyze the legitimation processes of innovations within the deliberations of the Drupal project. The data set constitutes 52 rational deliberation cases discussing innovations that were proposed by members of the community. Habermas’s Ideal Speech Situations (ISS) is used as the framework to view Drupal’s rational deliberations from; in fact within the 52 cases that are examined in this thesis, there were no violations to the guidelines of the ISS in the deliberations. The Communicative Action Theory, Influence Tactics theory and the theory of Validity Claims are aspects of the framework that is used to code and analyze the conversations. These aspects allow for an effective conceptualization of the dynamics of the Drupal deliberations. This thesis was able to find that legitimation processes of innovations in open source software were influenced by the type, complexity and implications of the innovations on the rest of the community. Also, bug fixes, complex innovations and innovations that have implications on the rest of the software will result in a long (in terms of number of comments) legitimation process. Also, it is empirically backed in this study that in open deliberations that aim at achieving mutual understanding towards a common goal, the communicative action type and the rational persuasion influence tactic are the most common methods for innovators to interact with the community.

An Analysis of the Dynamics of the Legitimation Processes of Innovations in Open Source Software:

Within the Open Source Software (OSS) literature, there is a lack of studies addressing the legitimation processes of innovations that are born in OSS. This study sets out to analyze the legitimation processes of innovations within the deliberations of the Drupal project. The data set constitutes 52 rational deliberation cases discussing innovations that were proposed by members of the community. Habermas’s Ideal Speech Situations (ISS) is used as the framework to view Drupal’s rational deliberations from; in fact within the 52 cases that are examined in this thesis, there were no violations to the guidelines of the ISS in the deliberations. The Communicative Action Theory, Influence Tactics theory and the theory of Validity Claims are aspects of the framework that is used to code and analyze the conversations. These aspects allow for an effective conceptualization of the dynamics of the Drupal deliberations. This thesis was able to find that legitimation processes of innovations in open source software were influenced by the type, complexity and implications of the innovations on the rest of the community. Also, bug fixes, complex innovations and innovations that have implications on the rest of the software will result in a long (in terms of number of comments) legitimation process. Also, it is empirically backed in this study that in open deliberations that aim at achieving mutual understanding towards a common goal, the communicative action type and the rational persuasion influence tactic are the most common methods for innovators to interact with the community.

Applying Habermas’ validity claims as a standard for critical discourse analysis

It has been proposed that the theory and practice of information systems development could benefit from a more explicit consideration of concepts of rationality. Habermas’ communicative rationality has been proposed as an approach to improve the conditions for rational discourse in systems development, thereby improving outcomes (Klein and Hirschheim 1991), and applied at the project level (Ulrich 2001) and to specific episodes of managerial communications (Ngwenyama and Lee 1997). At the same time, it is understood that societal discourses and ideologies shape the external environments of organizational decision making. A variety of approaches has been proposed to analyze these discourses including qualitative techniques for reading or interpreting texts, artifacts, and social practices (Philips and Hardy 2002). This paper examines the way in which Habermasian validity claims can provide an explicit and ethical standard for critical discourse analysis in order to reveal the distortions that shape the institutional environments of technology decision making. It offers an approach to operationalizing Habermas’ validity claims for an analysis of media texts related to a case study involving learning technology.

Applying Habermas’ validity claims as a standard for critical discourse analysis

It has been proposed that the theory and practice of information systems development could benefit from a more explicit consideration of concepts of rationality. Habermas’ communicative rationality has been proposed as an approach to improve the conditions for rational discourse in systems development, thereby improving outcomes (Klein and Hirschheim 1991), and applied at the project level (Ulrich 2001) and to specific episodes of managerial communications (Ngwenyama and Lee 1997). At the same time, it is understood that societal discourses and ideologies shape the external environments of organizational decision making. A variety of approaches has been proposed to analyze these discourses including qualitative techniques for reading or interpreting texts, artifacts, and social practices (Philips and Hardy 2002). This paper examines the way in which Habermasian validity claims can provide an explicit and ethical standard for critical discourse analysis in order to reveal the distortions that shape the institutional environments of technology decision making. It offers an approach to operationalizing Habermas’ validity claims for an analysis of media texts related to a case study involving learning technology.

Report on the Kyoto Guidelines of the ILA Committee on Intellectual Property and Private International Law

In 2010 the International Law Association (ILA) formed a committee to develop a new set of rules on intellectual property and private international law. In 2020 the committee presented its work at the 79th Kyoto Conference of the ILA. The ‘Kyoto Guidelines’ cover all areas of IP and all aspects of private international law. This report presents the Kyoto Guidelines and particularly looks at four questions of private international law: initial ownership; jurisdiction and applicable law in cases of multi-state infringements; validity claims of registered rights which arise incidentally; and cross-border collective copyright management.

THE OUTCOME OF NURSING ERROR AS ATTRACTIVE TO THE MEDIA

ABSTRACT Objective: to interpret, from the perspective of the Theory of Communicative Action, how the outcome of nursing errors can become attractive to the media, highlighting the main implications for the image of the profession and the imaginary of society. Method: qualitative research, carried out in documentary sources using news published in the major newspapers available online in two countries, Brazil and Portugal, from 2012 to 2016. The analysis of the findings was carried out following the steps of hermeneutics, based on the Theory of Communicative Action. The data were organized and coded in the ATLAS.ti software. Results: the research included 112 published news. Four categories emerged from the analysis: The highlights in the headlines - The beginning of persuasion; Combining image and initial text - An explosive mix; The error that is not an error - The error that is a crime; and Applying the validity claims in the discourses. Conclusion: the media are continuous producers of ideologies and, therefore, possess social responsibility by inducing misinterpretations that can negatively interfere in the nurse-patient interaction. Giving greater emphasis to the outcome of the error, the media influences negatively the people perception of nursing labour which has a unique social importance.

A Validity-Theoretic Approach to Interdiscursivity in Theresa May’s 2019 Resignation Speech

The present study seeks to propose Habermas’s (1976, 1992, 1998, 2001) validity-theoretic approach as a method for conducting political interdiscursive analysis. The approach is predicated on the methodological correlation between the three validity claims of truth, truthfulness, and rightness, on the one hand, and the respective speech acts of constatives, expressives, and regulatives, on the other. The data used for analysis is the resignation speech delivered by the ex-Prime Minister of the UK, Theresa May, on 24 May 2019 in Downing Street, following her political failure to deliver Brexit. The study derives its significance from attempting to uncover the pragma-argumentatively motivated interdiscursive patterns in May’s speech. In other words, the explanatory power of traditional interdiscursivity can be enhanced through integrating the pragma-argumentative component of validity-claim theory into the current form of political interdiscursive analysis. The study’s main finding is that, with the presence of pragma-argumentative links, there are four rationally oriented interdiscursive relations in May’s speech: (a) practical-aesthetic, (b) practical-theoretical, (c) theoretical-aesthetic, and (d) aesthetic-theoretical. Two crucial implications have emerged from this finding: (i) the dominant interdiscursive pattern in May’s speech is the practical-aesthetic interdiscourse, where May justifies her validity claims to truthfulness through the normative context of what best serves the UK’s political interests; (ii) both cases of theoretical-aesthetic and aesthetic-theoretical interdiscourses proved to have a dialectically interdiscursive meaning on the rational basis that two discourses are reciprocally justifying – and at some point, legitimating – each other.

Religious Pluralism Discourse in Public Sphere of Indonesia: A Critical Application of Communicative Action Theory to Inter-religious Dialogue

This paper examines religious pluralism discourse in post-Reformasi Indonesia. Though there is general consensus about the importance of maintaining inter-religious harmony, there are still various perspectives and arguments on the idealization of dealing with religious diversity in society. The differences are found not only between the advocates and opponents of religious pluralism but also among proponent groups of religious pluralism. This paper looks at how religious organizations for inter-religious harmony struggle for legitimating their religious pluralism ideals in society. In this context, this paper, by using Habermas’ theory of communicative action, focuses on the characteristics of their efforts to communicate with others in the public sphere. It examines inter-faith dialogue done by NGOs’ activities and arguments, focusing on their validity claims for justifying religious pluralism. This paper argues that some conceptions and presuppositions of this theory need to be critically assessed and modified in analyzing these NGOs’ discourse so that it can be appropriately applied to the Indonesian context in which religion has substantial power to influence people’s thoughts and behaviors. Particularly it will point out 1) the problem of universalized rationality, 2) power relation and strategic action, and 3) the role of religious reason in public discourse. [Artikel ini mengkaji diskursus pluralisme agama di era pasca-Reformasi Indonesia. Meski ada kesepakatan akan pentingnya membangun harmoni lintas agama, tapi pada tataran praktiknya masih ada pelbagai perspektif dan argumentasi dalam menyikapi keanekaragaman agama dalam masyarakat. Perbedaan ini tidak hanya ditemukan di kalangan mereka yang kontra, tapi juga di kalangan mereka yang pro pluralisme agama. Artikel ini bermaksud meneliti bagaimana organisasi agama yang memperjuangkan harmoni lintas agama berjuang memancang ide-ide ideal mereka terkait pluralisme agama di masyarakat. Dalam konteks ini, penelitian ini mengacu pada teori communicative action-nya Habermas dan fokus memantau karakteristik organisasi-organisasi tersebut dalam berinteraksi satu sama lain di ruang publik. Artikel ini bermaksud menguji sejauh mana dialog antar-agama dilakukan oleh organisasi-organisasi ini, terutama validitas klaim mereka dalam menjustifikasi pluralisme agama. Artikel ini berargumen bahwa konsepsi dan asumsi dari teori-teori tersebut perlu ditinjau ulang secara kritis untuk bisa diterapkan dalam konteks Indonesia, di mana agama masih memiliki kekuatan potensial untuk mempengaruhi pemikiran dan perilaku masyarakat. Secara khusus artikel ini akan membahas 1) problem rasionalitas universal, 2) relasi kuasa dan aksi strategis, serta 3) peran logika agama di ruang (diskursus) publik.

Global Citizenship Education, Global Educational Injustice and the Postcolonial Critique

This contribution develops a defence of a universalist conception of Global Citizenship Education (GCE) against three prominent critiques, which are, among others, put forward by postcolonial scholars. The first critique argues that GCE is essentially a project of globally minded elites and therefore expressive both of global educational injustices and of the values and lifestyles of a particular class or milieu. The second critique assumes that GCE is based on genuinely ‘Western values’ (e.g., in the form of a conception of human rights or conceptions of rationality or the self), which are neither universally accepted nor universally valid and therefore unjustly forced on members of non-Western cultures and societies. GCE, according to this critique, is assumed to be another version of the educational justification of a hegemonic and unjust global Western regime. The third critique focuses on the epistemological preconditions of GCE. It assumes that GCE relies on a particular, culturally embedded ‘Western epistemology,’ which perpetuates historically grown global educational and epistemic injustices by dominating and subjugating alternative epistemological approaches. With respect to the first critique I argue that it is to a certain extent sociologically plausible, but wrong when it is applied to the educational and political legitimacy of GCE. The second critique overestimates the consensus within the ‘Western tradition’ and underestimates the transnational dissemination of universalist ideals and values as well as its own reliance on universalist validity claims. I argue that in order to provide a plausible criticism of historically grown global educational and political injustices, it is imperative for GCE to integrate central insights provided by the postcolonial critique, without giving up on universalist ideals and values. The third critique is, according to my argumentation, based on flawed epistemological assumptions, which do not withstand critical scrutiny. Instead of identifying epistemic and scientific claims as the expressions of a particular ‘culture’ or geographical location (the ‘West’), I defend the position that philosophical and scientific research should ideally be conceived as a democratic and universalist project, whose emancipatory potential can only be realized on the basis of a universalist epistemology.