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Resume La place qu'occupent les consultants de cabinets privés dans la conduite de l'action publique est un phénomène particulièrement frappant dans le domaine de la gestion de la ressource en eau en Afrique du Sud. À première vue, le recours aux consultants semble être la conséquence directe de la mise en oeuvre d'une réforme de type New Public Management dans le cadre de la transition démocratique. Notre analyse socio-historique de l'État en action révèle cependant à quel point le recours à la sous-traitance fait partie de la culture institutionnelle du ministère de l'Eau. Depuis les années 1960 en effet, les fonctionnaires ont forgé les bases d'une collaboration au long cours avec des ingénieurs- consultants avec lesquels ils forment un réseau de politique publique, réseau qui a fini par redessiner les frontières entre public et privé. Nous examinons les transformations subies par ce réseau au fil du temps sous l'effet combiné de différents facteurs politiques.

AbstractThis article investigates participation bias in the European Commission's online consultations by focusing on issue characteristics and using a cost–benefit framework. The main assumption is that a group will choose not to participate when their participation costs exceed the expected benefits. This leads to a more biased participation pattern. We expect this to hold when the proposal discussed in a consultation is more complex, whereas the opposite is the case if the proposal is more salient. Furthermore, we expect there to be an interaction effect between complexity and salience. We test and find support for these expectations in an analysis of more than 350 consultations held between 2001 and 2012.

This paper analyses how people negotiate representations of other cultures in the media, in particular those traits that can be considered controversial in the sense of generating strong opinions and opposing stances. A news story about an Egyptian television channel run by Egyptian women journalists wearing the niqab (Maria TV) was used to stimulate debate in four focus groups. Although most of the participants initially criticized the approach adopted by the television channel, they also expressed opinions on journalists in niqab that agreed with the representation proposed by the channel. The article shows that even though audiences may seem capable of criticizing media biases, they do not recognize their own internalized prejudices and, ultimately, accept the discourse proposed by media.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the validity, fruitfulness, and constructive potential of Individualism-collectivism dimension in the contemporary world. With increasing interrelationship among countries and improvement of technologies and transportations, value differences among cultures might not be as significant as what people thought before. A questionnaire was constructed, tested, and distributed to 2,000 college students in South Korea, Japan, Canada, and the United States. Among the 1,547 questionnaires returned, 1,495 were included in the analysis. Although differences in cultural values still exist among college students in all four countries, the findings of the present study indicate meaningful implications on cultural changes in the modern world. To draw more accurate guidelines on cultural tendencies, the present study suggests that further investigations should explore other factors such as age, occupations, education, degrees of contact with people in other cultures, and use of technologies and media.

This paper investigated Thailand's "hegemonism" towards its neighbors implicitly penned in two famous long-lasting Thai country songs composed in the 1980s. "Siam Muang Yim" or "Siam, the Land of Smiles" and "Sao Song Muang" or "Ladies of the Two Nations" were examined and analyzed mainly through the lens of discourse analysis by Van Dijk (2004). The findings indicated a strong formation of Thai national identity with a sense of habitual inferiorization perception towards the neighboring countries. The revealed outcome may trigger intercultural awareness through a realization of the existing hegemonic practices and attitudes. Lessons learned from ruinous past events may be able to enrich a peaceful and harmonious living among people in the region.

AbstractThe Box–Behnken statistical experimental design was used to investigate the effects of operating parameters on thermo‐alkaline disintegration of sludge. The optimum disintegration degree was 77.83% at 90°C, 0.2 mol/L NaOH and 25 min retention time. The coefficient of determination (R2) of 97.68% confirms that the model has a very good fitness with the experimental variables. The effects of a thermo‐alkaline disintegration on the performance of the thermophilic anaerobic digestion of sludge were also investigated. The thermo‐alkaline pretreatment showed an initial solubilization effect and methane production (0.73 (L/Lr.day) increased up to around 54% compared to raw sludge (0.48 L/Lr.day). VS removal in disintegrated digester (65.87%) increased of 13.13% compared to conventional sludge digester (52.74%) at the end of the operation. Similarly, methane contents in the biogas of digester fed with disintegrated sludge (71.14%) increased of 6.44% compared to conventional sludge digester (64.7%).

AbstractCan different experiences with discrimination produce divergent political behaviors? Does it make a difference whether individuals are discriminated against by their peers or community members in the course of everyday life as opposed to political actors or institutions tasked with upholding democratic norms of equality and fairness? Crossing disciplinary boundaries, this study proposes a new theoretical perspective regarding the relationship between discrimination and political behavior. Specifically, it distinguishes between societal (interpersonal) and political (systematic) discrimination when examining the behaviors of racial and ethnic minorities in Great Britain. The results illustrate that although experiences of political discrimination may motivate individuals to take part in mainstream politics for substantive or expressive purposes, the same conclusion cannot necessarily be drawn for those who experience societal rejection. The principal aim of this study is to further highlight the complex and multidimensional nature of discrimination, and to encourage further analyses of how different types of discrimination may impact the civic and political behaviors of minority groups.