Suchergebnisse

Much of what we believe we know, we know through the testimony of others (Coady, 1992). While there has been long-standing evidence that people are sensitive to the characteristics of the sources of testimony, for example in the context of persuasion, researchers have only recently begun to explore the wider implications of source reliability considerations for the nature of our beliefs. Likewise, much remains to be established concerning what factors influence source reliability. In this paper, we examine, both theoretically and empirically, the implications of using message content as a cue to source reliability. We present a set of experiments examining the relationship between source information and message content in people's responses to simple communications. The results show that people spontaneously revise their beliefs in the reliability of the source on the basis of the expectedness of a source's claim and, conversely, adjust message impact by perceived reliability; hence source reliability and message content have a bi-directional relationship. The implications are discussed for a variety of psychological, philosophical and political issues such as belief polarization and dual-route models of persuasion.

Since late 2000s, the political landscape in Bangladesh moved from democracy to an authoritarian kleptocracy, and experienced a new set of political and social narratives. This paper aims to contest some of these dominant/official narratives which have been discursively constructed and promoted by the secularist parties (including the ruling regime) and groups in Bangladesh over recent years. Examining the sociopolitical and historical facts and figures of the country, we have identified five major contested narratives related to (a) Bengali nationalism in East Pakistan, (b) foundational ideology of Bangladesh's war of liberation, (c) state-sponsored Islamization in Bangladesh, (d) pro-liberation and anti-liberation dichotomy, and (e) war crimes trial. Drawing on a robust content analysis of the credible secondary sources substantiated by qualitative interviews, we have examined these dominant narratives and found that they are not supported by historical evidence and popular mandate, yet have been constructed largely to support and legitimize the current authoritarian regime. The paper offers both counter-narratives and some pragmatic policy recommendations to elude increasing polarization and sociopolitical instability and foster a peaceful democratic society in Bangladesh. ; Published version

Much of what we believe we know, we know through the testimony of others (Coady, 1992). While there has been long-standing evidence that people are sensitive to the characteristics of the sources of testimony, for example in the context of persuasion, researchers have only recently begun to explore the wider implications of source reliability considerations for the nature of our beliefs. Likewise, much remains to be established concerning what factors influence source reliability. In this paper, we examine, both theoretically and empirically, the implications of using message content as a cue to source reliability. We present a set of experiments examining the relationship between source information and message content in people's responses to simple communications. The results show that people spontaneously revise their beliefs in the reliability of the source on the basis of the expectedness of a source's claim and, conversely, adjust message impact by perceived reliability; hence source reliability and message content have a bi-directional relationship. The implications are discussed for a variety of psychological, philosophical and political issues such as belief polarization and dual-route models of persuasion.

The article analyzes the long-term impact of democratic institutions on socio-economic and political development of modern society. The author proves that the transitions to democracy in the twentieth century accelerated not only the pace of economic development, but also the processes of social polarization in society. Despite the positive impact of democratic institutions on economic development and political stability, democracy as a form of political rule cannot solve the problem of social inequality. The history of modern democracy shows that it reduces inequality levels only in certain cases, and in most cases social inequality increases both at the national and global levels. ; Анализируется долгосрочное влияние демократических институтов на социально-экономическое и политическое развитие современного общества. Автор доказывает, что переход к демократии в ХХ в. ускорил не только темпы экономического развития, но и процессы социального расслоения общества. Несмотря на положительное влияние демократических институтов на экономическое развитие и политическую стабильность, демократия как форма политического господства неспособна решить проблему социального неравенства. История современной демократии свидетельствует о том, что она только в отдельных случаях снижает уровень социального неравенства, а в большинстве случаев повышает его.

State–society relations in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have been deeply impacted by the dynamics around collective identities in the aftermath of the Arab uprisings and of other domestic and regional far-reaching developments, such as the failed coup attempt in Turkey or the ramifications of the Syrian conflict. It is therefore of utmost importance to discuss the changes (or lack thereof) in the articulation of collective identities, what pressures shape them, and what impact this has on the societal actors and ultimately on their relations with the state institutions and policies. In this regard two trends can be identified whereby pluralization and hybridization in certain countries, for example Morocco and Tunisia, stand in opposition to entrenchment and polarization, as illustrated by the Israeli and the Turkish cases. The result is heightened conflictuality in state–society relations and within societies at large in the MENA with the risk of spillovers at the regional level. ; This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under grant agreement No 693244.

Helicoidal structures of lamellae of nanofibrils constitute the cuticle of some scarab beetle; with iridescent metallic-like shine reflecting left-handed polarized light. The spectral and polarization properties of the reflected light depend on the pitch of the helicoidal structures, dispersion of effective refractive indices and thicknesses of layers in the cuticle. By modelling the outer exocuticle of the scarab beetle Cotinis mutabilis as a stack of continuously twisted biaxial slices of transparent materials, we extract optical and structural parameters by nonlinear regression analysis of variable-angle Mueller-matrix spectroscopic data. Inhomogeneities in the beetle cuticle produce depolarization with non-uniformity in cuticle thickness as the dominant effect. The pitch across the cuticle of C. mutabilis decreased with depth in a two-level profile from 380 to 335 nm and from 390 to 361 nm in greenish and reddish specimens, respectively, whereas in a yellowish specimen, the pitch decreased with depth in a three-level profile from 388 to 326 nm. ; Funding Agencies|Swedish Government Strategic Research Area in Materials Science on Functional Materials at Linkoping University (Faculty Grant SFO-Mat-LiU) [2009-00971]

The turmoil in Turkey's domestic politics has been exacerbating at an unforeseen pace since the Gezi protests in 2013. What made this protest period particularly remarkable was the multiplicity and diversity of youth discourses, that crossed the borders of a single issue-based opposition. The Gezi period and its aftermath in this sense can be understood as a tipping point in contemporary Turkish politics. Hence, in an attempt to understand the converging and diverging viewpoints of the young people who were the protagonists of the Gezi protests, this study utilizes Q-methodology and deciphers diverging and converging narratives of urban, secular, educated young people, who are said to have constituted the main body of protestors. Following the analysis of the primary data, the author observes three emerging discourses dominant among 21 young people (aged 20–30). The results hint at shared viewpoints on the Gezi protests as an "apolitical movement", a "violent movement" and a "Jacobin movement". The author argues that this divergence points at the exacerbating social polarization among youth groups in Turkey, which reached dangerous heights after the putsch on 15 July 2016.

The post-1991 political dynamics in Ethiopia has been defined by political polarization amidst multidimensional changes. The political discourse on the federal system and the ethno-national political configuration is stretched between two opposing stances namely the apocalyptic narrative of the opposition and the renaissance narrative of the ruling party. This paper contends that even though the two sides at face value appear different, however, a closer look at both sides reveals that both narratives are harping on the same narrative of invoking fear of disintegration and ethnic mayhem. The difference is one divulges on capitalizing the federal system as recipe for inevitable disaster while the other to have already averted it by instilling a federal system based on Ethno-territorial organization of self-rule. Consequently, the possibility of assessing the multidimensional dyna mics is made to fall between the cracks. Because, the discourse has been truncated to the size of binary interpretation of the overall post-1991 political dynamics, social change and security. Therefore, the imperative for engaging contemporary Ethiopia dynamics by transcending the binary divide.

Abstract
For a long time, the Western academic study of Islam could not escape making implicit comparisons between its own religions, culture, and "civilization" and that of Islam. One would think that the events of September 11, 2001, and the polarization that followed—including the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and now in Syria—only aggravated that situation. But the opposite is true. Among the generation of scholars of Islam who matured in the West after 9/11 are some who reached a new level in a project that earlier scholars in their field had already demanded: trying to understand Islam on its own terms. The two books reviewed here are thus far the two most outstanding examples of that development. Neither of them ever uses the word "decline." Unlike Ahmed, who only discusses academic voices, Bauer also deals with popular notions in politics and culture and hence is a much more polemical—and less well-structured and well-argued—engagement with Western views on Islam than Ahmed's. In the end, however, Bauer produces a more convincing approach to Islam in its postclassical period than Ahmed.

In the last decades, the cartel party theory has been one of the most discussed topics in the academic literature on political parties. Several publications have dealt with the application of the theory at the systemic level, using a country as a unit of analysis. Less attention has been given thus far to the party level. This analysis is aimed at improving the study of the cartel party theory by focussing on the transformations of three social-democratic parties in Europe: theParti Socialistein France, thePartido Socialista Obrero Españolin Spain, and thePartito Democraticoin Italy. The main findings in this work will not confirmin totothe theoretical assumption of the cartel party, in particular as regards membership and, in part, political convergence. Albeit declining, membership has been resilient in the last two decades. Despite a clear-cut convergence in EU-related issues, political manifestos of mainstream parties have shown a certain degree of polarization. Finally, while the three parties under examination rely almost entirely on public subventions, political parties proved to be capable of reforming the public funding laws, increasing the transparency of donations and reducing the total amount of public subvention.

What is policy learning and how do we know when we observe it? This article develops an original way of operationalizing policy learning at the individual and subsystem level. First, it juxtaposes four types of opinion change at the individual level – opinion shifting; opinion softening; position-taking and opinion hardening. This last change, we argue is indicative of motivated scepticism, a non-learning process that we borrow from public opinion studies. Second, we identify factors associated with opinion change and argue that some of them indicate policy learning, while others point to motivated scepticism. Lastly, we examine learning and motivated scepticism against patterns of opinion convergence (the expected outcome of learning) and polarization (the expected outcome of motivated scepticism) at the subsystem level. We illustrate the use of this approach to study policy learning with the case of shale gas development in two Canadian provinces, British Columbia and Quebec. While, we find clear signs of individual learning and motivated scepticism in both provinces, we find that policy learning is more prevalent in Quebec than in British Columbia at the subsystem level.

Review of A Community Life: Memoirs of Alfred M. Sears: A Redemption Story from Reform School to Attorney General and Minister of Education of the Bahamas, Alfred M. Sears. I-EASE Publishack, 2017. ISBN 978-978-8201-14-4 This emotionally charged testimonial to life in the historical colonial and postcolonial Bahamas is a deeply politicized story of personal and political redemption built on Alfred Sears' decades-long commitment to literacy and education, to the value of family and community and to the practice of speaking truth to power. Sears argues that both the health of Bahamian society and the sovereignty of the nation are dependent on its citizens being able to think for themselves and for that to happen, it is imperative to root out the legacies of colonialism. He makes recommendations for altering the Bahamian Constitution and thematically addresses concerns about government corruption, transparency, and accountability; partisan polarization; the Bahamian politic as a system of patronage and clientelism; the need for constitutional reform; political campaign finance reform; sustained economic development and participatory regionalism.

Adherent cells cultured in vitro must usually, at some point, be detached from the culture substrate. Presently, the most common method of achieving detachment is through enzymatic treatment which breaks the adhesion points of the cells to the surface. This comes with the drawback of deteriorating the function and viability of the cells. Other methods that have previously been proposed include detachment of the cell substrate itself, which risks contaminating the cell sample, and changing the surface energy of the substrate through thermal changes, which yields low spatial resolution and risks damaging the cells if they are sensitive to temperature changes. Here cell culture substrates, based on thin films of the ferroelectric polyvinylidene fluoride trifluoroethylene (PVDF-TrFE) co-polymer, are developed for electroactive control of cell adhesion and enzyme-free detachment of cells. Fibroblasts cultured on the substrates are detached through changing the direction of polarization of the ferroelectric substrate. The method does not affect subsequent adhesion and viability of reseeded cells. ; Funding agencies: Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems (VINNOVA) [2010-00507]; Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation; Onnesjo Foundation

The study was supported by the Latvia-Lithuania-Taiwan research project "Nonpolar ZnO thin films: growth-related structural and optical properties" (Latvia: LV-LT-TW/2016/5 , Lithuania: TAP LLT 02/2014 , Taiwan: MOST 103-2923-M-110-001-MY3 ). ; The comprehensive spectral study of lithium metagallate LiGaO2 crystal has been done including methods of pump-probe techniques, optical absorption, photoluminescence, luminescence kinetics, thermoluminescence and polarised luminescence in broad temperature region. Luminescence spectrum of the crystal contains the main emission bands at 4.43, 3.76, 2.38 and 1.77 eV. The novel data on luminescence excitation spectra including VUV area, kinetics and polarization are presented. The correlation between pump-probe experiment results and luminescence properties is found. Conclusions are done about the recombination character of all the observed emission bands, implying tunnel recombination of donor-acceptor pairs. ; Ministry of Science and Technology 103-2923-M-110-001-MY3; Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia as the Center of Excellence has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Framework Programme H2020-WIDESPREAD-01-2016-2017-TeamingPhase2 under grant agreement No. 739508, project CAMART²

Presidential election years attract attention to the rhetoric, personalities, and agendas of contending White House aspirants, but these headlines do not reflect the ongoing political shifts that will confront whoever moves into the White House in 2017. Earthquakes and erosions have remade the U.S. political terrain, reconfiguring the ground on which politicians and social groups must maneuver, and it is important to make sure that narrow and short-term analyses do not blind us to this shifting terrain. We draw from research on changes since 2000 in the organizational universes surrounding the Republican and Democratic parties to highlight a major emergent force in U.S. politics: the recently expanded "Koch network" that coordinates big money funders, idea producers, issue advocates, and innovative constituency-building efforts in an ongoing effort to pull the Republican Party and agendas of U.S. politics sharply to the right. We review the major components and evolution of the Koch network and explore how it has reshaped American politics and policy agendas, focusing especially on implications for right-tilted partisan polarization and rising economic inequality.