1,721,063 research outputs found
The cognitive mobilization of organizational participation : missing evidence from Italy (1972-2006)
Full text linkThe Cognitive Mobilization thesis (CM) claims that the increasing educational levels in post-industrial societies bring about changes in the relationship between people's education and their participatory behaviour compared to the past. Younger, well-educated and more politically interested citizens are less likely to participate in political parties than poorly educated citizens, but more likely to join unconventional types of activist organisations. Using Italy as a test case, this study looks at whether the CM mechanism ought to be considered as a key factor shaping organizational participatory trends over time. Contrary to the CM thesis, we find that the highly educated continue to participate the most in political parties and that the gap between well and poorly educated in terms of their participation in activist associations does not become larger compared to the past
Cibercampañas, Sociedad Y Cultura Tecnopolíticas. Perfiles De Usuarios De Las Tic En Las Eg 2008
No full textEconomic or Cultural Threat? : orientations towards immigration and European integration among EU citizens and national parties over time : KING Project – Political Science Unit. Desk Research Paper n. 5/July 2014
No full textAction HOME/2012 - 2013/EIFX/CA/CFP/4000004268. The recent Lampedusa tragic events have brought the attention once again to the fact that addressing immigration issues is critical for the future development of the European Union project. In this perspective, and for publicly legitimizing any future policy decision on immigration and integration, understanding the point of view of political parties and, most of all, of citizens is crucial. Taking into account the 27+1 EU countries included in the KING project, we first categorize EU countries according to their different levels of foreign population (Eurostat) and integration levels (Mipex) (Macro level). We then look at the climate of opinion on extra-EU immigration in different countries both among parties and citizens, investigating how these attitudes are related to growing Euroscepticism feelings brought about by the recent Eurozone economic and financial crisis. On the one hand, using expert surveys, we direct our attention on the attitudes that political parties in different countries have on immigration, identifying whether party position are more or less positive about it and whether they are more or less Eurosceptic (Meso level). On the other hand, using public opinion surveys (EB and ESS), we look at attitudes towards immigration of national publics, looking at whether the economic or cultural dimension are prevalent in shaping citizens’ opinions and investigating which social categories are more or less prone to consider immigrants as a threat. We also look at whether anti-immigration attitudes help to feed Euroscepticism feeling (Micro level). We conclude with some general policy advice and directions. Following data results and the relative importance of the cultural dimension in shaping anti-immigration attitudes over the economic one, we propose that, along with a lively and inclusive public debate on immigration and nationhood, long-term systematic measures that address educational and anti-discrimination policy should be implemented at different (coordinated) levels
The immigration issue in the European electoral campaign in the UK : text-mining public debate from newspapers and social media
No full textIn recent years, the issue of immigration has become increasingly salient in the UK political
and media debate. Moreover, with the development and persistence of the economic and
financial crisis within the EU, immigration has been linked to growing opposition and criticism
towards the European Union. In a country in which Euroscepticism has historically
been high compared to countries in continental Europe, EU immigration-related statements
connected to EU free-border agreements became more widespread. For this reason, we expect
immigration to be a prominent issue in the electoral campaign of the upcoming 2014
European Parliament elections in the media. By covering (potential) EU immigrants and
EU immigration issues in a certain way, media tend to promote or restrain certain ideas of
immigration, that might eventually affect public’s views. In fact, we know from previous
studies that immigration, particularly in times of economic crisis, is a challenge for society
that can be framed not only in positive or negative terms, but also in economic or cultural
terms.
By looking at the news coverage of several newspapers, selected according to their political
orientations and including both broadsheets and tabloids, this study first considers
the salience of coverage of EU immigrants and EU immigration issues in UK newspapers
in the three months preceding the EU elections of May 2014. It further explores whether
news coverage of different newspapers is framed in terms of economic (e.g. jobs) or cultural
(e.g. identity) terms. In addition, we mine information from social media to discover
how the immigration debate is framed by politically engaged members of the public on
these platforms. Although inferring public opinion from social media can be problematic,
it is a rewarding approach given the volume of public text available, and the ability to
identify political affiliations through network connections. Understanding representation
of immigration and its connections with public opinion is crucial not only in order to contribute
to the scholarly debate on anti-immigration and Euroscepticism attitudes, but also
to better inform public policy decisions
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Economic crisis and attitudes towards the European Union : are Italians and Greeks becoming eurosceptic because of the crisis?
No full textThe economic crisis has emerged as a global phenomenon affecting several countries at the same time. This situation has presumably had an impact on attitudes towards supranational institutions, among which European Union has a prominent role. This is likely to be true also in countries that have traditionally been less critical towards the European integration process such as Italy and Greece, where the crisis not only heavily hit the economy, but also triggered serious political and institutional turmoil. Different national and international actors have been identified as potential culprits for the crisis. The main research question of the paper is whether, in these two countries, the attribution of blame for the crisis to national or international actors has an impact on voters’ attitudes towards the European Union. Analyses are carried out using fresh data from the national election studies (ELNES 2012 and ITANES 2013) of the two countries. To answer our questions we further control for the political sophistication and ideological positions of voters, as the political narrative that voters apply to understand the current crisis can affect their perceptions towards the European Union
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