Bridging the Gap between Citizens and Decision-Makers

Author(s):  
Karamagioli Evika

Over the past few years the concepts of government and governance have been dramatically transformed. Not only is this due to increasing pressures and expectations that the way we are governed should reflect modern methods of efficiency and effectiveness, but also that government should be more open to democratic accountability. The following chapter will introduce the social impact dimension of e-democracy while proposing concrete directions and incentives that should be provided for engagement through electronic means. The intention is to highlight the fact that technology is the result of a combination of tools, social practices, social organizations, and cultural meanings. It not only represents social arrangements, but also has the potential to facilitate and / or limit different types of interaction.

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (06) ◽  
pp. 19-34
Author(s):  
Luis Mauricio Escalante Solís ◽  
Carlos David Carrillo Trujillo

Las sociedades comparten un serie de formas a través de las cuales se pueden identificar, conocerse y re-conocerse, sin hacer mucho caso a la especificidad, latitud o cultura que las caracterizan y las unen. Lo primero que comparten es una memoria social, entendida como un significado compartido por los miembros que lo conforman, sin importar su veracidad o autenticidad. El recuerdo es necesario para mantener unido a los integrantes de un grupo, es por ello que se manifiesta constante e intermitentemente en el transcurso de la existencia del grupo social, se vuelve un significado adoptado por dicho colectivo que debe ser manifiesto en las actividades y la cotidianidad.El presente trabajo describe y analiza tres prácticas sociales de conmemoración denominadas alternativas que se realizan en países latinoamericanos (Argentina, Chile y México), se fundamentan sus orígenes, causas sociales y formas de organización, así como sus acciones principales. El eje rector que unifica a estas tres prácticas conmemorativas es el hecho de que reivindican la lucha social y ejemplifican mecanismos contrahegemónicos de demanda social, antes las falencias, omisiones y acciones del Estado. El estudio y el análisis de las conmemoraciones abren la posibilidad de entender distintos usos del pasado. Los eventos históricos construyen un relato que otorga identidad y sentimiento de unidad. Sin embargo, recuperar el pasado a través de la conmemoración no elimina el surgimiento de grupos contrahegemónicos que proponen una reflexión crítica sobre lo sucedido. The societies share a number of ways through which they can identify and meet. However, often irrelevant specifics of culture. It is much more important social memory. Social memory is something that is shared by members of a group regardless of their veracity or authenticity. The memory is needed to hold together the members of a group. Therefore, the memory becomes a meaning adopted by the collective manifested in everyday activities.This paper describes and analyzes three social practices of commemoration taking place in Latin American countries (Argentina, Chile and Mexico), describing their origins, social causes, forms of organization and main actions. The guiding principle that unifies these three commemorative practices is claimed that exemplify the social struggle and counter-hegemonic mechanisms of social demand, given the failures, omissions and actions of the state. The study and analysis of the commemorations open the possibility of understanding different uses of the past. Historical events construct a story that gives identity and togetherness. However, recovering the past, through the commemoration does not eliminate the emergence of counter-hegemonic groups that propose a critical reflection about what happened.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruili Shi ◽  
Chunxiang Guo ◽  
Xin Gu

This paper puts forward the concept of integrated power, synthetically measures the voters’ ability to influence the results of decision-making by influencing others through social learning, considering the interactions between decision-makers in social networks, and offers a method for measuring integrated power. Based on the theory and model of social learning, we analyze the influence of social learning on the voting process and power indices from the perspective of individuals’ professional level, position within the social network structure, relationship closeness, and learning efficiency. A measurement model of integrated power is constructed, and the variation in integrated power compared with that of the Banzhaf index is analyzed by numerical simulation. The results show that when the individual’s professional level is higher and closeness with neighboring decision-makers is greater, then the integrated power index is higher. An individual’s integrated power index may decrease when he/she changes from an isolated node to a nonisolated node, and then his/her integrated power will increase with the increases of neighbor nodes. Social learning efficiency can promote the integrated power of individuals with lower social impact and relationship closeness, but it is not beneficial for the core and influential members of the social network.


1995 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Fowl

AbstractOver the past fifteen years "ideological criticism" of the Bible has grown to become an accepted practice within the academy. It has provided a site where feminists, Marxists, liberation theologians and other interested parties have been able to engage in discussion aimed largely at displaying the wide variety of competing interests operating in both the production and interpretation of the Bible. Unfortunately, it is common among ideological critics of the Bible to speak of biblical texts as having ideologies. The thrust of this article is to claim that this way of thinking confuses a wide range of issues concerning the relationships between texts and the social practices which both generated those texts and are sustained by interpretations of particular texts. This position is defended by an examination of the various ways in which the Abraham story was read from Genesis through Philo, Paul, and Justin Martyr.


Author(s):  
Paola Corrente

Religion and economy have had a very important role in shaping society and their connection to social matters has been present since the very appearance of money and birth of economic activities. In antiquity, the bond between religion and economy was very strong because ancient world was symbolic and was embedded with magic and religious ideas: economy was part of this “wholeness”, because it inherited from the past the social practices aimed at the well-being of people, which were under the direct protection of the gods. The aim of my paper, hence, is to analyze the religious dimensions of money and economy in ancient societies, following the perspective of philosophy and mythology. Through the guide of a careful observer of human behavior, the great philosopher Aristotle, both disciplines can give interesting insights on the effect economy can have on society. The background for my research will be the cultures of ancient Mediterranean world, in particular, Greece and Mesopotamia, for we have a considerable amount of documents and literary works, whereas, regarding the methodology, I will approach the texts from an historical and comparative perspective.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-23
Author(s):  
DR. SAIF UL MUJAHID SHAH ◽  
DR. ANWAR UL MUJAHID SHAH ◽  
SYED ARSHAD ALI SHAH

As Poverty has become a global challenge for all the nations around the world, from the past many years, different strategies have been used to reduce it. However, since 1980s Microfinance has become a powerful tool to alleviate poverty and it's not adopted even in the developing countries but also developed nations have been practicing it. Many of the past studies used the economic indicators to measure the impact of microfinance on poverty reduction, and few have concentrated on the social indicators. The purpose of this research is to examine the effect of microfinance as a poverty reduction in terms of social indicators in the rural areas of northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The objective of this research is to check whether the established NGOs in the concern areas have been successful in bringing social change in the life of the beneficiaries. For the purpose of analysis, the structural equation model is applied to a sample of 440 collected through a structured questionnaire. Results show that microfinance had a negative impact on the health and education of the beneficiaries. This research indicates that more funds and priority should be given to the education and health sector because they have equal importance as compared to the other economic indicators.


Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 52
Author(s):  
Minna Sa

The Daur people are a minority living in Northeast China. They have adhered to a form of shamanism since ancient times. They believe that all things are spiritual. The Daur call an intermediary or messenger between the human world and the spirit worlds jad’ən (shaman). In addition, there are also different types of priests and healers, such as baɡʧi (healer and priest), barʃ (bone-setter), ʊtʊʃi (healer of child) and baræʧen (midwife), but only the jad’ən is a real shaman. The Daur’s system of deities is huge, complex, and diverse, mainly including təŋɡər (God of Heaven), xʊʤʊr barkən (ancestral spirit), njaŋnjaŋ barkən (Niang Niang Goddess), aʊləi barkən (spirit of mountain), nuʤir barkən (spirit of snake), ɡali barkən (God of Fire), etc. Among them, ancestral spirit is the most noble and important deity of the Daur, called xʊʤʊr barkən (spirit of ancestors). In the past, the social structure of the Daurs was based on the equal clan xal and its branches mokun. Xʊʤʊr barkən is the ancestral spirit of the mokun family. The shaman with xʊʤʊr barkən as the main patron is called xʊʤʊr jad’ən, that is, mokun shaman. The inheritance of the Daur shaman is very complicated. The xʊʤʊr jad’ən is strictly inherited along the patrilineal line, while the ordinary jad’ən can also inherit according to the maternal lineage. The inheritance rites of other types of shamans are also based mainly on the patrilineal lineage and occasionally the maternal lineage. The complexity of the Daur shaman inheritance is first and foremost related to the variety of the gods and spirits, secondly to their belief of polytheism, and finally to the constant split of the traditional clans and families, namely, the xal-mokun social structure.


2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey W. Paller

Research on political accountability emphasizes elections and popular control, but often neglects how ordinary people hold their leaders to account in the context of daily life. Dominant scholarly approaches emphasize the logic of electoral sanctioning and removal, missing the importance of mutual respect between representatives and citizens. This article introduces a new logic of democratic accountability based on the social practices, daily political behaviors, and public deliberation between representatives and citizens. Using urban Ghana as a study site, this article uncovers the mechanisms through which a theory based on respect works in practice. By reconciling theories of political representation with deliberative democracy, the article places the voices of urban Ghanaians in conversation with Western political thought to broaden understandings of accountability in African democracies.


2013 ◽  
Vol 92 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynn Abrams

Inter-personal violence between men has often been accepted as a ubiquitous feature of male relationships in the past, and the contexts in which that violence was perpetrated is seen to reveal something about the mentalities and social roles of men in past societies. This article considers the social practices of masculinity and the acting out of codes of manhood in the context of Highland Scotland in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries – a period of significant economic and social change. Based primarily on the scrutiny of legal records relating to cases of violent assault involving men of the middling and lower classes from across the Highland counties, this article suggests that the everyday practice of Highland manhood was subject to taming, as the expressions of manhood appropriate for a society at war were gradually rejected as inappropriate for a society of commerce and civility. While customary forms of violence in pursuit of the restitution of honour continued to have some legitimacy until the early nineteenth century, especially in the rural Highlands, in Inverness a new model of disciplined masculinity was applied to male behaviour, offering a glimpse at new sensibilities around inter-personal violence that were to enter Highland society more generally in the following decades.


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