Suchergebnisse

"Das Projekt 'Anstoß - Generationenübergreifende Entwicklung gesellschaftlicher Perspektiven in der Niederlausitz' setzt gemeinsam mit Bewohnerinnen und Bewohnern vor Ort positive Impulse für die weitere Entwicklung der Region. Menschen verschiedener Generationen arbeiten in Zukunftsprojekten, in denen die persönliche und regionale Identität, berufliche Kompetenz und demokratische Handlungsbereitschaft gestärkt werden. Unterstütz von Verantwortlichen aus Wirtschaft und öffentlicher Verwaltung entstehen Netzwerke, die in der Region die hier berichteten Projektergebnisse weiterführen und neue Projektideen fördern. 'Anstoß' zeigt in exemplarischer Absicht Alternativen auf zu problematischen Entwicklungen in der Region wie etwa Abwanderung, Perspektivlosigkeit oder politische Radikalisierung." (Verlagsangabe)

Research on online political participation highlights how online platforms may facilitate or encumber political participation. In this contribution, we add to existing research on digital inequalities in online political participation by focusing on privacy concerns as a critical construct. We follow a contextual understanding of online privacy and examine a variety of online political behaviours to differentiate the distinctive roles privacy concerns play in higher- and lower-threshold forms of participation. Based on a survey of German Internet users, we find that social media use exerts a strong positive effect on political participation, especially lower-threshold forms of participation. As privacy concerns are spread quite evenly throughout the population, they contribute little to the socioeconomic stratification of online political participation. Privacy concerns relate positively to higher-threshold forms of political participation. We discuss how higher- and lower-threshold participation constitute distinct contexts for users' considerations of privacy risks.

Instagram has more than 1 billion monthly users. Yet, little is known about how citizens engage with this platform. In this paper, we use representative survey data to examine social, civic, and political uses of Instagram by citizens in four countries: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and France (n=6,291). The survey was administered to an online panel matched to the age and gender profile of each country (September to November 2019). About 40% of respondents used Instagram. This platform is especially popular among young adults (73%). Users' network sizes are typically small, as a third of users have less than 15 followers and follow less than 15 other accounts. About 15% of users followed news organizations, a nonprofit organization or charity, or a political candidate or party. While users rarely cultivate networks with ties to these formal organizations and groups, civic and political information flows on this platform. Approximately 57% of users report seeing political information on Instagram during the previous 12 months. These findings suggest political information on Instagram flows through informal rather than formal networks. This paper establishes the importance of social, civic, and political uses of Instagram among citizens in four Western countries. Furthermore, we offer insights into the segments of the population that are intense users of Instagram, which helps to understand the role of this platform in civic and political life.

Instagram has more than 1 billion monthly users. Yet, little is known about how citizens engage with this platform. We use survey data (representative on age and gender) to examine citizens' Instagram use in four countries: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and France (n=6,291). The survey was administered to an online panel matched to the age and gender profile of each country (September to November 2019). Across the four countries, about 40% of respondents used Instagram. This platform is especially popular among young adults who cultivate larger networks compared to older adults. Compared to older adults who use Instagram, younger users are more likely to follow a news organization. We employ these usage patterns to infer different motivations for use, drawing on the uses and gratification approach. We find that this approach is most useful for understanding cross-national and gender differences. In particular, Americans cultivate larger social networks on Instagram compared to citizens from other countries, implying greater social interaction motives. Males are more likely to follow news organizations compared to females, which implies they have more informational motives for Instagram use. Socioeconomic differences in Instagram adoption and types of uses are much smaller than the differences marked by age, gender, and country. This paper establishes the importance of Instagram use among citizens in four Western countries. Furthermore, we offer insights into the segments of the population that are intense users of Instagram, as well as different motivations for use.

AbstractWhenever risk managers are confronted with deep uncertainty and organized complexity, probabilistic inference methods are used. These seem able to allow for crisp inputs and precise results. However, as has been noted by several thinkers (e.g., von Hayek in Studies in philosophy, politics and economics, Routledge, London, 1967; Weaver in American Scientist, 36: 536–544, 1948), such methods cannot be used effectively in such situations. This might basically sound like old wine in a new bottle and, in fact, objections to, and limitations of conventional, i.e., probabilistic risk modeling are anything but unheard of in the literature of banking and finance. However, this paper introduces for the first time an argument, inspired by reflections on the old riddle of induction, from which those shortcomings of the limited suitability of probability can be derived. It demonstrates that any choice of a particular probability distribution for a given risk management purpose is necessarily arbitrary, i.e., it is not grounded in the data but in the choices of the statistician or risk manager, and cannot be justified by appealing to something more objective. Thereby, this paper unmasks the illusion that financial data and extreme losses are well-described by non-standard probability functions such as power laws that have been embraced at the expenseof bell curves in the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2008. Moreover, although we do not propose a positive solution, we believe that articulating the real, and as yet unnoticed, source of the problem is a key step towards developing a principle and tractable response.

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore socio-economic implications of decentralized autonomous self-owned businesses.


Design/methodology/approach
The authors take the approach of a case study analysis.


Findings
Unlike dark scenarios according to which almost half of our jobs are at risk in the wake of new emerging technologies such as AI and Blockchain (Frey and Osborne, 2013), the authors envision a world of decentralized autonomous self-owned businesses, using the example of the taxi market. The authors, first, outline their characteristics and how they work. Second, they elaborate on the socio-economic implications of markets where this novel kind of business enters. Third and most important, the authors argue that so-called robo-economic systems would be tantamount to a post-capitalistic society that is enforced by applying capitalistic principles.


Research limitations/implications
The presented scenario of this paper is very futuristic and furthermore reduces a complex system quite drastically to be able to focus on the two implications of interest. Therefore, we are confronted with the necessity to take assumptions on socio-technical feasibilities and individual preferences. Most of these assumptions can be challenged (see Section 6.3).


Social implications
The scenario presented by the authors stands in contrast to the fear that increased automation inherently leads to increased inequality. There is a general debate going on whether automation and digitalization will lead to a massive loss of employment, because machines will replace humans in many fields of work. Frey and Osborne (2013) estimate that nearly every second job is at risk to disappear in the coming decades because of computerization. Hence, many people fear to be left behind because of this development and inequality will increase tremendously as only those who own the machines will benefit directly from the profit share. In the scenario, however, the profits are mostly distributed among the consumers via reduced prices.


Originality/value
The proposed scenario seems to reconcile socialism (less private property) with liberalism (a radicalization of markets) and shows an effective way to tackle market power, the problem that certain persons and firms would benefit almost exclusively from the increased profit margins promised by automation.

Scholarship on political participation and the Internet has found that Internet use may foster both online and offline political participation, while also finding pronounced inequalities in online political participation based on demographic and psychological characteristics. The article advances our theoretical understanding of how inequalities in online and offline political participation emerge through cognitive pathways, by applying social cognitive theory to conceptualize the relationship between environmental influences, cognition and behavior. Using survey data from 1,488 Internet users in Germany, we investigate how the cognitive dispositions of social media self‐efficacy and online privacy concerns mediate the effect of socio‐demographics on Internet use, and online as well as offline political participation. Results indicate that younger citizens are more likely to engage in online political participation, while older, more educated, and male citizens are more likely to engage in offline political participation. Internet use is positively associated with online political participation, which is closely related to offline participation. Self‐efficacy fully mediates the effect of education and gender on Internet use and online political participation. Thus, Internet use simultaneously amplifies and mitigates pre‐existing participation divides, depending on users' cognitive dispositions.

Digital inequalities research has investigated who engages in online political participation, finding gaps along socioeconomic variables such as gender and education. Recent research has also highlighted how online platforms may facilitate political participation. Especially for multi-purpose platforms such as Facebook, where users are supposed to use their real names, issues of adequate self-presentation arise. The diversity of multiple audiences engenders privacy concerns, particularly when controversial political issues are discussed. We add to existing research on digital inequalities by focusing on privacy concerns as a critical construct. Using a survey of German Internet users, we test the effect of privacy concerns on online political participation. Unexpectedly, privacy concerns increase political participation. As privacy concerns are spread evenly throughout the population, they contribute little to the socioeconomic stratification of online political participation. Social media use, however, exerts a strong positive effect on political participation, and differs significantly among socioeconomic groups.

Online tools such as social media provide new opportunities for citizens and stakeholder groups to be informed, identify common interests, express and share opinions and demands, organize, and coordinate interventions. Therefore, the Internet could be expected to increase stakeholder engagement in corporate affairs and facilitate good governance. In order to provide an overview of current findings on the impact of online media on governance and stakeholder engagement, we conduct a systematic literature review. Our analysis reveals five topical categories of inquiry. We analyze studies from the field of business participation and find a strong bias towards consumer engagement and marketing issues. Only few studies are found to critically explore the effect of online media on power and value distribution between corporations and stakeholders. We then turn to the more established field of political and civic participation in order to further analyze antecedents, forms, and outcomes of online engagement in civic affairs, and derive a framework for future research. [Copyright John Wiley and Sons, Ltd.]