Suchergebnisse

Er religion en privatsag? Op gennem det 20. århundrede har det været en klar opfattelse, at religion skal dyrkes inden for hjemmets fire vægge eller i kirkens hellige rum. Men faktum er, at vi konstant udstiller vores religiøse overbevisning ude i offentligheden. 'Religion i det offentlige rum' belyser gennem 13 bidrag, hvordan religion i allerhøjeste grad sætter en offentlig og politisk dagsorden i nutidens ellers så sekulariserede samfund. Religiøse ritualer bliver synlige for alle, når den pakistanske organisation Minhaj-ul-Quran holder fredsmarch for flere tusind deltagere med koranoplæsning og fællesbøn på Rådhuspladsen i København. Og når pinsegudstjenester rykker ud i det grønne, som det er blevet en tradition rundt om i landet. Bibelreferencer oplever vi i reklamer, når Philadelphia-smøreost sammenkædes med engle, og lampefirmaer markedsfører produkter under temaet 'Lad der blive lys'. Religion er også til diskussion, når for eksempel Immigrantmuseet og Københavns Bymuseum laver udstillinger om indvandring, og Folketinget og medierne sætter jævnligt tro til offentlig debat. Alligevel bekræfter vi ofte hinanden i, at religion er en privatsag, men som bogen viser, møder og forholder vi os til religion, hver gang vi bevæger os ud i det offentlige rum.

AbstractDemocratic theorists have long emphasized the importance of participatory equality, that is, that all citizens should have an equal right to participate. It is still unclear, however, whether ordinary citizens view this principle as central to democracy and how different violations of this principle affect subjective democratic legitimacy. The attitudes of citizens are imperative when it comes to the subjective legitimacy of democratic systems, and it is therefore important to examine how participatory inequalities affect these attitudes. We here contribute to this research agenda with survey experiments embedded in two surveys (n = 324, n = 840). We here examine (1) whether citizens consider participatory inequality to be an important democratic principle, and (2) how gender and educational inequalities affect subjective legitimacy and the perceived usefulness of the participatory input. The results show that citizens generally consider participatory inequalities to be important, but only gender inequalities affect subjective legitimacy and usefulness. Hence it is important to consider the type of inequality to understand the implications.

AbstractPrevious studies suggest that information from deliberative mini‐publics helps voters make informed and reflected judgements and act accordingly. Despite a growing body of literature, the causal mechanisms remain unclear. This study examines three causal mechanisms for affecting voting intentions in a referendum: 1) factual knowledge, 2) trusted information proxy, or 3) perspective‐taking of the opinions of others. The data come from a referendum on a municipal merger in Korsholm, Finland. In a field experiment, a statement from a citizens' jury on the merger was released to a treatment group and differences in opinions and voting intentions were compared with a control group that did not receive the statement. Causal mediation analysis examines which of the three causal mechanisms best explains how the jury's statement affected intended voting behaviour. We find that reading the statement increased factual knowledge, trust, and perspective‐taking, but only increased factual knowledge affected voting intentions.

While much research has been devoted to the effects of inequality on political participation, little attention has been paid to how different kinds of subjective perceptions of social inequality affect citizens' political behaviour. This is important since these perceptions shape the message that reaches political decision-makers when addressing concerns over social inequalities. This article differentiates between sociotropic and egocentric perceptions of social inequality and explores to what extent individuals' perceptions of such inequality affect engagement in institutionalized and non-institutionalized political participation between elections. Engagement was evaluated with a survey among a segment of the Finnish population (n = 1673). Our results indicate that citizens with sociotropic concerns are more likely to get involved in both institutionalized and non-institutionalized forms of political participation, whereas egocentric perceptions have less of an impact. Furthermore, the associations are moderated by left–right ideology: sociotropic concerns are more strongly expressed among left-wing voters, whereas right-wingers are more likely to be propelled to action by egocentric concerns.

In this article, we examine whether a deliberative mini-public can provide a trusted source of information in the context of a polarized referendum. Political polarization gives rise to selective distrust of those on the 'other side'. The Citizens' Jury on Referendum Options in Korsholm, Finland, was organized in conjunction with a polarized referendum on a municipal merger. Our analysis is based on a field experiment measuring the effects of reading the jury's statement. We find that trust in all public actors was selective, that is, dependent on views on the merger, the Citizens' Jury being the only exception. Overall, reading the jury's statement increased trust in all public actors, including those perceived as being on the 'other side'. With some caveats, our findings suggest that mini-publics can alleviate selective distrust in polarized contexts.

Previous literature has studied voter behavior in European Parliament elections. However, it remains unclear how candidate characteristics affect favorability of EP candidates since it cannot be taken for granted that these characteristics work as in national elections. We therefore use a conjoint analysis to examine how gender, left-right ideology, issue focus, political experience, representative focus, citizenship, and attitude towards European integration affected EP candidate favorability during the 2019 campaign in Finland. Results show that while traditional candidate characteristics matter, their impact is dwarfed by effects of traits particular to the EP elections. Hence, it is imperative to observe the particularities of EP elections to understand candidate choice.

This article examines whether the Citizens' Initiative (CI) in Finland has enhanced inclusion in processes of political agenda‐setting. Democratic innovations such as CIs have been proposed as a solution to the challenges facing Western democracies. CIs are expected to increase political inclusion by allowing citizens to set the political agenda and by mobilising otherwise marginalised or passive citizens. However, the empirical evidence on this proposition remains scarce. This study examines the impact of the CI in Finland on political inclusion. It relies on the Civic Voluntarism Model (CVM) to determine whether the CI mobilises citizens who otherwise tend to be less involved in political matters and thereby enhances inclusiveness. The data come from the Finnish National Election Study 2015 (FNES2015), which is a cross‐sectional representative survey conducted in the wake of the national parliamentary elections in April 2015. Logistic regression models are used in the article to examine the relative importance of socioeconomic resources and civic skills, psychological political engagement and recruitment networks. The results show that while users have many of the familiar traits of political activists, the CI also activates marginalised groups. Most importantly, young citizens are likely to support CIs and the Internet constitutes a central recruitment network. In this sense, the CI has helped increase democratic inclusiveness.

Candidate endorsements affect the likelihood that people vote for a candidate since they reduce the efforts devoted to vote choices. However, the effects of endorsements from different sources remain under-explored. Furthermore, the effects of endorsements are believed to vary with the level of political sophistication, as voters with low sophistication are more reliant on such shortcuts, but it is unclear whether these differences are similar for different sources. We study the effects of endorsements from three different sources – family and close friends, networks on social media and Voting Advice Applications (VAAs) – on candidate favorability. We do so with a choice-based conjoint experiment embedded in a survey from Finland (n = 1021), where we also examine differences in effects across political sophistication (political interest, frequency of political discussions, internal political efficacy, party identification, and voting in the last parliamentary election). The results show that endorsements from VAAs and family and friends have positive effects while social media networks do not. We do not find systematic differences in effects across levels of political sophistication no matter how we operationalize it. This shows that it is important to consider the source of an endorsement to appreciate the effect, no matter who is the recipient. ; Peer reviewed

AbstractIn recent decades, a new type of room has been established in public institutions in Europe: the rooms of silence. In this article, rooms of silence at three Scandinavian universities are analyzed with focus on intention, materiality, and use in relation to increased religious diversity in the student population, individualization, and ongoing secularization. This is done by using a typology which distinguishes between individual and collective use and use associated with religious, spiritual, and secular practices. The analyses show that plans and policies for the rooms emphasize stress-reduction and spiritual or secular reflection. The chaplains actively facilitate the shift from collective to more individual use of the rooms. The analyses also show that the restricted materiality of the rooms shapes practices in ways that either hinder collective Muslim prayer or force students to perform prayer as an individual "silent" action.

This article describes the Robot Vision challenge, a competition that evaluates solutions for the visual place classification problem. Since its origin, this challenge has been proposed as a common benchmark where worldwide proposals are measured using a common overall score. Each new edition of the competition introduced novelties, both for the type of input data and subobjectives of the challenge. All the techniques used by the participants have been gathered up and published to make it accessible for future developments. The legacy of the Robot Vision challenge includes data sets, benchmarking techniques, and a wide experience in the place classification research that is reflected in this article. ; This work was supported by grant DPI2013-40534-R of the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad of the Spanish Government and by Consejería de Educación, Cultura y Deportes of the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha regional government through project PPII-2014-015-P. Jesus Martínez-Gómez is also funded by the JCCM grant POST2014/8171.

Following a request from the European Commission, the Panel on Additives and Products or Substances used in Animal Feed (FEEDAP) was asked to deliver a scientific opinion on the safety and efficacy of 3‐phytase FLF1000 as a feed additive for pigs for fattening and minor porcine species for growing. This additive contains 3‐phytase produced by a genetically modified strain of Komagataella phaffii and it is authorised in the European Union as a feed additive for feed for chickens for fattening, laying hens, chickens reared for laying and for minor poultry species for fattening or reared for laying or for breeding. The applicant requested the extension of use of the additive to pigs for fattening and minor porcine species for growing. The FEEDAP Panel concluded that the use of the product as a feed additive for pigs raises no concerns for the consumer safety nor for the environment. The additive should be regarded as a potential respiratory sensitiser. The applicant provided a combined tolerance and efficacy trial in weaned piglets to support the safety for the target species. However, owing to the lack of precise data on the total feed intake of the animals, the FEEDAP Panel did not consider further the study for the assessment and consequently no conclusion could be drawn regarding the safety of the additive for pigs for fattening nor for other minor growing porcine species. Three studies were considered for the efficacy and from the data obtained the FEEDAP Panel concluded that the additive has the potential to be efficacious in improving the phosphorus utilisation in pigs for fattening at a minimum level of 500 FTU/kg feed.