Straddling the Wall: Comparative Framing of Trump’s Border Wall in U.S. & Mexican Newspapers

Donald Trump’s most notorious promise before and during his presidency was the construction of a border wall. The issues surrounding new construction of Donald Trump’s border wall (both physically and rhetorically) are complex and the outcomes are difficult to predict. The study examines how Trump’s border wall was framed in online newspaper publications of the international border cities of San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico, and in El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Specifically, the study employs a comparative framing analysis using the John Agnew’s (2008) theoretical lens of borders as equivocal spaces of dwelling that bring about both benefit and harm — the standard of a decent life. The analysis revealed the frames of: Mexico will pay for the wall; DACA as leverage; political contention; protest and dissention; environmental impact; immigration package; separation and divisiveness; safety and security; and economic consequences. A majority of the content published in the U.S. was produced locally, however, most of the content published in Mexico was from news agencies, except for the opinion pieces that were locally produced for outlets on both side of the border.

Social Positioning and International Order Contestation in Early Modern Southeast Asia

Identities and ideas can lead to international order contestation through the efforts of international actors to socially position themselves and perform their identities. International actors try to shape the world to suit who they want to be. To substantiate this argument, I examine the contestation of international orders in early modern Southeast Asia. The prevailing view portrays a Confucian international order which formed a consensual and stable hierarchy in East Asia. However, instead of acquiescing to hegemonic leadership, both Siam and Vietnam frequently sought to assert their equality and even superiority to the Chinese dynasties. I argue that both polities engaged in political contention to define their places in relation to other polities and the broader social context in which they interacted. I examine how international order contestation emerged from efforts to define and redefine background knowledge about social positioning, social categorization, and the political ontologies and beliefs about collective purpose on which they are based. I claim that agents seek to interact with others in ways that reify their sense of self, and challenge the background knowledge embedded in performances of other actors that threaten their ability to perform their identity. I also argue against theories that attribute international order contestation to hegemonic decline or the breakdown of a tacit bargain, which assume that orders are held together by a dominant power. One implication is that hegemony and hierarchy are based on dominant ideas, not dominant states.

Introducing the Deadly Electoral Conflict Dataset (DECO)

This article introduces the Deadly Electoral Conflict dataset (DECO): a global, georeferenced event dataset on electoral violence with lethal outcomes from 1989 to 2017. DECO allows for empirical evaluation of theories relating to the timing, location, and dynamics of deadly electoral violence. By clearly distinguishing electoral violence from related (and sometimes concurrent) instances of organized violence, DECO is particularly suitable for investigating how election-related violence is connected to other forms of violent political contention. In the article, we present the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of the data collection and discuss empirical patterns that emerge in DECO. We also demonstrate one potential use of DECO by examining the association between United Nations peacekeeping forces and the prevalence of deadly electoral violence in conflict-affected countries.

Epilogue

The Epilogue reflects on the book’s central theme of the political contention over historical memory and suggests that, in some ways, the wrangling over history between the KMT and DPP has softened in recent years. Indeed, the two political camps have seen a gradual merging of their views on, for example, human rights, multiculturalism, and cosmopolitanism. Still, party politics being what it is, the epilogue envisions contestation over historical memory to continue in Taiwan. Taiwan, a small island nation in a state of diplomatic limbo, outstrips its political insignificance and exemplifies why historical memory matters so much in a world that, despite the rise of globalization and transnational forces, continues to be defined by nation-states and the political parties that govern them.

White Terror and the Discourse of Peace and Reconciliation

Since the lifting of martial law, museums have been established in Taiwan that draw attention to past human rights abuses under the Chiang regime and that promote human rights education. This chapter focusses on two such sites: the Ching-mei Human Rights Culture Park (景美人權文化園區‎) and the Green Island Human Rights Culture Park (綠島人權文化園區‎), as well on efforts to join the two together to form the National Museum of Human Rights (國家人權博物館‎). These sites have been the object of political contention between the DPP and the KMT, but both parties have used them to present Taiwan as a democratic society that respects human rights and is united with the rest of the “free” world.

Does Mask Usage Worsen Symptoms in Patients With Rhinosinusitis Balloon Sinuplasty Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic?

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing guidelines have reshaped the way that we live our lives. Perhaps the most common and strictly adopted measure has been mask wearing. Mask wearing, whether it be cloth, surgical, or N95, has quickly become the new norm in the ongoing struggle against this pandemic and has been proven to be effective in curbing its high infection rate. There has, however, been growing opposition to these policies by a substantial part of the general population who claims that masks are ineffective and can worsen breathing. To some, the choice to use or not use a mask has morphed into a point of political contention, rather than a choice rooted in concerns for public health. This commentary attempts to investigate the validity of these claims and explore how clinicians can encourage the usage of masks despite the fears and confusion against them.

Playing Politics: How Sabarimala Played Out on TikTok

TikTok is commonly known as a playful, silly platform where teenagers share 15-second videos of crazy stunts or act out funny snippets from popular culture. In the past few years, it has experienced exponential growth and popularity, unseating Facebook as the most downloaded app. Interestingly, recent news coverage notes the emergence of TikTok as a political actor in the Indian context. They raise concerns over the abundance of divisive content, hate speech, and the lack of platform accountability in countering these issues. In this article, we analyze how politics is performed on TikTok and how the platform’s design shapes such expressions and their circulation. What does the playful architecture of TikTok mean to the nature of its political discourse and participation? To answer this, we review existing academic work on play, media, and political participation and then examine the case of Sabarimala through the double lens of ludic engagement and platform-specific features. The efficacy of play as a productive heuristic to study political contention on social media platforms is demonstrated. Finally, we turn to ludo-literacy as a potential strategy that can reveal the structures that order playful political participation and can initiate alternative modes of playing politics.

Divide and Conquer

This chapter examines the process of field formation on the western frontier, focusing in particular on the process through which the physical environment was transformed into territories and states, which served as arenas for political competition. It begins by situating the case of South Dakota within the context of western settlement more generally, documenting the steps through which the land that would eventually become South Dakota came to be organized by the federal government, starting with the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. The remainder of the chapter traces the process through public land was continually divided into states and territories, eventually leading to the creation of South Dakota in 1889. Boundary disputes played a critical role in shaping patterns of political contention as rival factions of elites fought to secure control over the location of scarce spatial resources such as the capital.

Centuries of Ballot-Box Transportation Planning in Los Angeles

Since 1980, many have marveled at Los Angeles’“innovation” of funding transportation through ballot measures that are raising billions for transportation improvements. In fact, historically much transportation infrastructure in Los Angeles was financed by local voter-approved revenues. It began in 1868 with a narrowly approved $225,000 bond measure to build the region’s first railroad, followed by an 1876 measure to grant the Southern Pacific railroad a $602,000 subsidy to entice the company to route its transcontinental line through the region. Angeleno voted on an additional 23 different transportation-related ballot measures between the passage of the Good Roads Act (1908) and the end of the New Deal (1937)—a key period of Los Angeles’ history that saw dramatic population increase and with it political contention over the direction of the region’s growth. Overall, these early transportation measures fared well with voters. Of the 25 transportation-related ballot measures in Los Angeles County from 1860 to 1960, only seven (28%) failed to pass, a far better record than nontransportation measures of which 21 of 31 (71%) went down to defeat. Regardless of whether, as some contend, Los Angeles missed a golden opportunity to create the backbone of an effective transit system that would have reduced the need for automobiles and spending many billions on freeways, it is clear that local voters have long faced competing visions for the future of Los Angeles and arguments over whether to fund transportation systems to serve these visions.