Suchergebnisse

Social media networks, such as Twitter, offer the perfect opportunity to either positively or negatively affect political attitudes on large audiences. The existence of influential users who have developed a reputation for their knowledge and experience of specific topics is a major factor contributing to this impact. Therefore, knowledge of the mechanisms to identify influential users on social media is vital for understanding their effect on their audience. The concept of the influential user is related to the concept of opinion leaders' to indicate that ideas first flow from mass media to opinion leaders and then to the rest of the population. Hence, the objective of this research was to provide reliable and accurate structural mechanisms to identify influential users, which could be applied to different platforms, places, and subjects. Twitter was selected as the platform of interest, and Saudi Arabia as the context for the investigation. These were selected because Saudi Arabia has a large number of Twitter users, some of whom are considerably active in setting agendas and disseminating ideas. The study considered the scientific methods that have been used to identify public opinion leaders before, utilizing metrics software on Twitter. The key findings propose multiple novel metrics to compare Twitter influencers, including the number of followers, social authority and the use of political hashtags, and four secondary filtering measures. Thus, using ratio and percentage calculations to classify the most influential users, Twitter accounts were filtered, analyzed and included. The structured approach is used as a mechanism to explore the top ten influencers on Twitter from the political domain in Saudi Arabia.

Este artículo explora el problema de la política y la religión en JeanJacques Rousseau desde una perspectiva filosófica. Para ello expone la forma como Rousseau concibe la religión en sus principales obras, destacando su carácter equívoco y polémico. Luego analiza el concepto de la religión civil desde la óptica del papel público que debía desempeñar en la comunidad política. Finalmente, sugiere los argumentos que fundamentan la propuesta rousseauniana como el diseño de una religión civil o política, o si, por el contrario, es una suerte de instrumentalización política de la religión, elemento que lo emparentaría con otros autores modernos. Este texto no pretende resolver el dilema, sino sugerir que hay razones para sostener cualquiera de estas dos lecturas de la obra del ginebrino. ; This article explores the problem of politics and religion in Jean-JacquesRousseau from a philosophical perspective. In order to achieve this goal,this paper firstly shows how Rousseau conceives religion in his majorworks, and it emphasizes in their ambiguous and controversial character. After that, this paper analyzes the concept of civil religion based onthe public role that it was called to play within the political community.Finally, this paper deals with the issue of whether the arguments behindRousseau's proposal are the design of a civil or political religion; or is it asort of political manipulation of religion, and in consequence, an elementthat evidences a link between Rousseau and other modern authors. Thetext does not purport to resolve the dilemma, but suggest that there arereasons to support either of these two readings of the work of the author.

La boxe, ou la « douce science » des coups (« sweet science » en anglais), est loin de représenter un sujet mineur pour les sociologues et les ethnographes. De plus en plus nombreux, leurs travaux constituent autant d'analyses où s'affrontent non seulement des corps, mais aussi différentes conceptions de l'enquête et du rapport des chercheurs à leurs terrains. En les parcourant un à un, cet article retrace l'histoire d'un objet sociologique dont les contours restaient à définir. Il montre que, au-delà de leurs différences, les manières de comprendre ou d'expliquer la condition de boxeur sont toutes traversées par une question centrale : celle de la domination. Tandis qu'elle est au principe des combats livrés sur le ring, les chercheurs en perçoivent les expressions à l'intersection du « genre », de la « classe » et de la « race ». Aussi ne manquent-ils pas de voir, dans les scènes pugilistiques, diverses représentations des luttes que livrent les subalternes contre les forces d'exclusion tendant à les maintenir dans des positions socialement dominées.

This article examines the views of researchers in five social science and humanities disciplines on their digital literacy and the training they need or have undertaken. Theoretically, this article draws upon two competing conceptualisations of digital literacy: digital literacy as 'user skills' and digital literacy as 'user–technology interactivity'. Empirically, it suggests that social science and humanities researchers' understandings and evaluations of their digital literacy unfold at two levels – the factual and the perceptual – and involve not only (technical) skills but also user experiences, emotions and complex processes of learning, practising and self-development when interacting with technology. Furthermore, researchers challenge the value of generic institutional training for literacy enhancement and envision the development of informal communities of experience exchange and knowledge-sharing across the research community. These findings lead to recommendations on training provision and support the conceptualisation of digital literacy as a process where user interactivity with technology results in certain experiences, reflections and lessons, rather than merely reflecting users' technical skills.

This article sketches a sociology in the making that arises out of the case of GM food in Britain in 1999. It is presented with a view to moving, collaboratively, towards its further study. A 'considered sociology' is not original. It requires treating as an integral and enduring part of the field of investigation the historical and social characterisation of that same field. An evaluation of the sociology of food indicates that field's limitations for the examination of GM food, with one key exception. The article moves on to propose the need for (a) an as yet underinvestigated field of the industrialisation of food together with the role of science and technology within it, and (b) an examination of the industrialised (social) scientific production of 'the consumer'. These may then serve as a basis for examining the manner in which public coverage of GM food could be characterised not as a matter of science but of a PR and is now publicly construed as a debate, 'pro' and 'anti'.

The challenge to research management is threefold: first, to define the vision of a research institution, to determine the nature of its potential innovative contributions. Second, to develop the organizational prerequisites for meeting these goals, ensuring that the structures of the institution correspond to the demands. And, third, to create an internal environment which will promote the type of creativity envisioned. Innovation springs from a totally different way of looking at the subject at hand: what kind of new perspective is needed for social science research? How can an innovative approach be institutionalized and given a chance to succeed? And, given that the demands of such an institution do not correspond to the traditional demands on social scientists, what kinds of internal incentives and structures can be developed to stimulate and reward the unusual type of creativity desired? This paper seeks to answer some of these questions by abstracting from experiences with a particular model in social science research and by drawing on the relevant organizational literature.

Since military strategy is part of the decision-making pro­cess among participants in world politics, we may begin our exami­nation of the subject by considering the arena of world affairs.

ObjectivesThe purpose of this article is to examine the relationship between religion and voting behavior and political attitudes. Moreover, this work examines the distinction between black and white evangelicals.MethodsThis article makes use of regression and logit analysis of the American National Election Studies of 1992 through 2008.ResultsIdentification with a particular tradition is important, along with attitudes concerning the authorship of the Bible. Moreover, affiliation with an evangelical tradition works in opposite directions for African Americans and whites. African‐American evangelicals, perhaps because of the messages on economics and civil rights that are preached in the traditional black church, are more likely than other African Americans to vote Democratic. Looking at differences concerning political issues, however, shows much less clarity than does voting behavior. The differences between African‐American and white evangelicals are largely nonexistent, except on issues that deal specifically with race.ConclusionThe relationship between religion and voting behavior in presidential elections is more complex than previously thought.

Vladimir Ilich Lenin (1870 - 1924) led the first successful revolt against market-based liberal democracy and founded the Soviet State in 1917, serving as the new nation s chief architect and sole ruler for the next five years. This collection of primary sources allows readers to learn about Lenin through his own words and emphasizes Lenin s actions rather than his ideology. Jeffrey Brooks and Georgiy Chernyavskiy have translated newly available documents that make it possible to provide a more accurate portrait of a ruthless political strategist whose actions created a new political, economic, social, and cultural system that in its heyday challenged the military, technological, and cultural might of the United States. Document headnotes, a chronology, questions for consideration, and a selected bibliography offer additional pedagogical support and encourage students to analyze the actions and beliefs of a man who transformed world history and whose legacy continues to affect social and political movements throughout the world.; Vladimir Ilich Lenin (1870 - 1924) led the first successful revolt against market-based liberal democracy and founded the Soviet State in 1917, serving as the new nation s chief architect and sole ruler for the next five years. This collection of primary sources allows readers to learn about Lenin through his own words and emphasizes Lenin s actions rather than his ideology. Jeffrey Brooks and Georgiy Chernyavskiy have translated newly available documents that make it possible to provide a more accurate portrait of a ruthless political strategist whose actions created a new political, economic, social, and cultural system that in its heyday challenged the military, technological, and cultural might of the United States. Document headnotes, a chronology, questions for consideration, and a selected bibliography offer additional pedagogical support and encourage students to analyze the actions and beliefs of a man who transformed world history and whose legacy continues to affect social and political movements throughout the world.

Political theory of European union, through an engagement between political concepts and theoretical understandings, provides a means of identifying the EU as a political object. It is argued that understanding the projects, processes and products of European union, based on 'sharing' or 'communion', provides a better means of perceiving the EU as a political object rather than terms such as 'integration' or 'co-operation'. The concept of 'European communion' is defined as the 'subjective sharing of relationships', understood as the extent to which individuals or groups believe themselves to be sharing relations (or not), and the consequences of these beliefs for European political projects, processes and products. By exploring European communion through an engagement with contemporary political theory, using very brief illustrations from the Treaty of Lisbon, the article also suggests that European communion embraces three different readings of the EU as a political object -- the EU as a constellation of communities; as a cosmopolitan space; and as an example of cosmopolitical co-existence. In other words, the political object of European union may be identified as sharing 'European communion'. Adapted from the source document.

"Jeffrey Abramson argues politics with the classic writers and draws the reader into a spirited conversation, with contemporary examples that illustrate the enduring nature of political dilemmas. As the discussions deepen, the voices of Abramson's own teachers, and of the students he has taught, enter into the mix, and the book becomes a tribute not just to the great philosophers but also to the special bond between teacher and student."--Jacket.