SSOAR - Social Science Open Access Repository
Not a member yet
93520 research outputs found
Sort by
Mapping Plurality in Moldova
Get PDFSince its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Moldova has been identified as riven by division and contestation around key issues of identity, nation, and language (Prina 2014; Marandici 2023). This article does not dispute this claim, but it does seek to contextualize it. For example, Moldova's political elites have used the contested issue of identity to their advantage, politicizing what they can to foment division, even when such issues may not initially have been divisive. At the same time, Moldova is highly pluralistic - not least in terms of identity, nation, and language. However, this pluralism is neither necessarily an issue of division nor contestation
Building a Shaky Bridge to NATO: Ukraine and its Interim Security Framework
Get PDFThis article examines the interim security framework Ukraine and its partners are building to counter Russian aggression and move toward NATO membership. While legally non-binding and lacking specifics, the bilateral agreements create a framework for bilateral and multilateral security cooperation. Capability Coalitions aim to meet Ukraine’s equipment needs as resources allow. Though unlikely to ensure Ukraine’s near-term security alone, continued efforts are essential to building credible deterrence and fully integrating Ukraine into a collective security arrangement
Spaces of Urban Cultures of Homeless Care: The Austerity‐Driven Closure of an Institutional Facility
Get PDFThis article draws on institutional ethnography to examine the austerity‐driven closure of a homeless care facility in Cologne, Germany. It expands debates on public urban cultures of care by highlighting the significance of spatially embedded institutional loops and their impact on malfunctioning care spaces from a multi‐level perspective. The article demonstrates that spatial loops and classifications within the framework of austerity politics undergo a transformation and directly affect spaces and cultures of homeless care. At the macro and meso levels, institutional actors (municipal administration, property committees, the head of the facility, and social workers) are engaged in negotiations over the acceptance and rejection of spatial responsibility. At the same time, at the micro level, homeless men themselves are required to navigate altered loops within various spaces of care, encountering highly paradoxical paternalistic cultures of care. The specific spatial context - shaped by political agendas, institutional structures, and the interplay of various spaces of care - is crucial for better understanding the dynamics of public urban cultures of care for the homeless and other marginalized communities
Digital Diplomacy: Challenges and Opportunities
Get PDFDigital diplomacy has transformed the way states and international actors engage with the public, build relationships, and contribute to conflict resolution across multiple dimensions and challenges. With the advancement of technology and the increasing use of the internet, diplomacy has entered a new phase, where digital platforms play a significant role in diplomatic processes without disregarding traditional diplomacy. This paper aims to analyse the concept of digital diplomacy, the opportunities and challenges it presents, and its impact on international relations. The methodology applied is based on the analysis of various materials and sources related to digital diplomacy, employing descriptive, analytical, historical, and observational methods to explore its importance, function, role, and associated challenges. Through this study, we argue for the significance and positive role of digital diplomacy, particularly in the context of rapid technological advancement. As technology continues to expand, diplomacy is evolving toward a more open and transparent form. This paper examines the concept, opportunities, and challenges of digital diplomacy, along with practical examples of its application on the international stage, emphasising its growing importance and influence
The Neoliberal Turn from a Latin American Perspective: The Expansion of Managerial Knowledge in Brazil as a Cultural Imposition in the Dispute over the State
No full textThe article analyses the importation of managerial knowledge by Brazil from the first bodies dedicated to the subject, in the 1930s, through the creation of the first management graduate courses in the country, in the 1950s, through the Brazil-United States cooperation agreements for "administrative training" in the 1960s and 1970s, until reaching the expansion of higher education courses in management throughout the 1990s and 2000s, when management became the main course in the country in terms of number of enrolments. The main argument is that this process is inseparable from the US strategy for Latin America, which led to the deconstruction of more autonomous development policies, such as those that prevailed in Brazil between 1946 and 1964, in the name of a managerial vision of state action. In this sense, what was at stake in neoliberal turn, in the case of Latin American countries, was not so much the protection of a non-existent welfare state, but rather the deconstruction of political strategies for relatively autonomous development, especially through industrialisation processes
Biographical Pathways to Dominance in Scientific Fields: Locating Professors' Trajectories in the Swiss Field of Economic Sciences
No full textFrom a field perspective, individuals follow biographical trajectories, which let them accumulate and convert resources. These pathways are even more institutionalised and predictable as the field's autonomy is high. Economic sciences have been depicted as highly autonomous. However, studies have also demonstrated an important diversity in economists' careers in and out of academia. This article aims to explore this tension, thanks to systematic information on the careers of all professors of economics and business sciences in Swiss universities in 2000 (n=261). For such a task, we use an original combination of methods - multi-channel sequence analysis, cluster analysis, and multiple correspondence analysis - which allows us to link biographical trajectories with the hierarchy of positions in this field. First, we focus on these professors' professional pathways through four dimensions: within universities, outside academia, at the international level, and within research collaborations. Second, we measure the extent to which specific types of professors' trajectories associate with different resource endowment within the Swiss field of economic sciences. We show that "seniority" in Swiss academia (short international stays and short extra-academic careers), institutional experiences (mid-career accession to academic executive positions), and scientific networks (mid-career investments in research collaborations and PhD supervision of future elite members) are strongly associated with a high volume of resources. We also stress that rapid accessions to a full professorship are typical of professors who correspond to the scientific pole of the field (i.e., the pole that most strongly reflects logics from the scientific field), while slower paces relate to its society pole (i.e., the pole closer to the illusio of other fields and the field of power). Besides its empirical contribution to the study of economic sciences, this article emphasises the importance of investigating the multiple dimensions of biographical temporalities within fields by leveraging an original quantitative methodology
Trust in Political Leaders as Trustworthiness
Get PDFSocial scientists have suggested that more careful theoretical work on the nature of trust is required to satisfactorily carry out their research. At the same time, recent work in philosophy on the topic of trust incorporates very little of the existing empirical work that has been completed and might inform the theory. In this article, I add my voice to the chorus calling for greater transdisciplinary work on the topic of trust, and I aim to contribute to this work by proposing a conceptual infrastructure that can help to clarify and substantiate the theoretical foundations of existing empirical work on the topic of trust in political leaders. This infrastructure will recommend a typology of theories of trust that includes entrusting theories, which focus on what is entrusted, trusting theories, which focus on the values and dispositions of the truster, and trustworthy theories, which focus on the trustworthiness of the trustee. This conceptual infrastructure will be theoretically useful, providing a language in which to understand and articulate the nature of trust and trustworthiness as well as normative matters having to do with the relationship between trust and trustworthiness (i.e., when should a political leader be trusted?). It will also be empirically useful, providing a recommended method to determine a set of concepts that can be deployed in empirical work on the presence or absence, and evolving dynamics, of trust and trustworthiness (i.e., when is a political leader trusted?)
It's Not Just Structural: Political Context and London's Environmental Networks Twenty‐One Years Later
Get PDFThe past 21 years have seen the UK environmental movement transform as climate change has become an urgent issue and broader publics have engaged in civil disobedience. More radical protest forms are curtailed by new legislation, while large NGOs like Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace have repositioned themselves as more locally responsive (e.g., anti-fracking). This article uses a novel perceptive and mapping approach to political opportunity theory to compare networking in London's environmental movement, 2002-2003 to 2023-2024. We compare our interview data (n = 49) and an organisational network survey (n = 66) from 2023-2024 with data from 2002-2003. We argue that structural opportunities vary little and so cannot explain contrasting networking patterns. We describe a set of contingent factors that have varied across the two different eras. These partly tally with activists' own concerns about a recently emerged "grim political environment." Our novel contribution shows that contingent factors shaping environmental activism have influenced activists' perceptions of a closed polity, resulting in slightly more inclusive networks. Our key finding is that the centrality of climate change to contemporary environmental activism, the perceived urgency of the climate crisis, and the government's poor track record in slowing it have resulted, cautiously, in networks that span what was once a more definitive radical-reformist divide
Integrating Emerging Design‐Build Technologies for Resilient Housing in the Navajo Nation
Get PDFThe Navajo Nation faces critical challenges in developing housing that is resilient to climate change while honoring cultural heritage. Socio‐economic disparities, limited infrastructure, and extreme environmental conditions demand innovative solutions that integrate sustainable practices with traditional Navajo values. This study critically examines the potential of smart design‐build technologies to create resilient, culturally appropriate housing tailored to the Navajo Nation's unique needs, while interrogating the normative assumptions that often accompany Western frameworks of sustainability and innovation. This research combines a multidisciplinary literature review with a graduate‐level design studio's explorative and applied insight. The literature review synthesizes advancements in sustainable technologies - such as off‐grid power systems, alternative materials, and participatory design methods - through a decolonial lens that challenges dominant planning paradigms. A conceptual framework was constructed to evaluate the intersection of cultural coherence, technological viability, material sustainability, socio‐environmental adaptability, and governance. Off‐grid solutions, including solar panels and wind turbines, offer clean energy alternatives, while locally sourced materials, like earth‐based and carbon‐environmentally informed additive manufacturing solutions, provide cost‐effective, low‐carbon options suitable for the arid climate. The study emphasizes participatory design, engaging local communities in developing housing solutions that align with cultural values and modern needs. By combining traditional Navajo architectural principles - such as circular forms and earthen materials - with smart technologies, the resulting designs are resilient, sustainable, and socially relevant. The design studio component enabled graduate students to explore speculative housing prototypes grounded in this framework, evaluated in dialogue with Navajo cultural liaisons and contextual constraints, thereby centering Indigenous perspectives in both process and output. The findings contribute to the broader discourse on smart, resilient infrastructure, offering insights for policymakers, designers, and funders to support localized, culturally and environmentally informed housing solutions in Indigenous communities
Issue Attention and Semantic Overlap in Vaccination Coverage Within Switzerland's Hybrid Media System
Get PDFDespite broad scientific support, vaccination is traditionally a contested issue among the public. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the issue of vaccination received widespread attention in news media and on social media. Although we know that public debates on such disputed issues evolve over time in hybrid media systems, there is still little knowledge about the extent to which news media and social media align or differ in their issue attention dynamics and semantics. Furthermore, empirical studies, particularly on social media data, tend to focus on periods of high issue attention, often missing relevant reference points before or after such phases. Focusing on the issue of vaccination in Switzerland, we examine 77,798 news articles by 20 Swiss online newspapers and 929,431 posts by 22,672 Swiss Twitter (now X) users to investigate the similarities and differences between the two spheres through a time series analysis between April 1, 2019, and June 30, 2022. The findings show how vaccination gained vastly in issue attention - measured as the share of total coverage and tweet volume, respectively - during the Covid-19 pandemic. Twitter and news media were closely aligned during the crisis in terms of issue attention and semantics, but less so before and after the pandemic. These findings substantiate previous works on issue agendas in hybrid media systems that converge toward a dominant issue in times of crisis