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It is pointed out, we can frankly say that European integration transformations in the reform of law enforcement activities have already become an irreversible process and for many years to come this will be the main direction of improving the functioning of Ukrainian judicial, prosecutorial and other law enforcement bodies. Despite the state of war and the continued resolute repulsion of Russian aggression, Ukraine is making significant efforts to implement the necessary transformations in its national legal order. The article examines the international legal standards that regulate the activity of Ukrainian national judicial and law enforcement agencies in preventing the commission of criminal offenses as one of the most important components of the crime prevention process. The thesis that crime prevention in Ukraine, as one of the most important components of the functioning of the law and order system, should be carried out precisely on the basis of international standards, which, in turn, create an atmosphere of orderliness and coordination of the actions of all law enforcement structures of the signatories of international agreements on combating crime as a phenomenon not only at the national level, but also its modem manifestations in the form of cross-border and international organized crime. Based on the analysis of international legal sources and the works of domestic scientists, conclusions are drawn that it is necessary to use the European experience of public administration in combating crime through the implementation of international standards in public administration and planning of the activities of judicial and law enforcement agencies, including in separate areas of combating crime; it is expedient among the priority measures to apply international standards for the prevention of corruption both in the entire system of state bodies in general, and especially for countering criminal corruption offenses that can be committed by officials of any rank in the spheres of judicial, prosecutorial and other law enforcement activities; it is necessary to achieve a high level of public trust in judicial and law enforcement structures; it is necessary to form an anti-corruption culture of law enforcement officers taking into account the requirements of international standards and best global practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite enjoying a series of advantages and privileges, including access to public funding and technical infrastructure, as well as a special regulatory framework allowing them to reach almost the entire population, public service media (PSM) have historically faced a number of challenges. These include opposition from privately held media and various political parties, mounting criticism from audiences, and incessant pressures from state authorities. Some have been more successful than others in defending themselves against these attacks. Some PSM institutions have gained a high level of trust as a result of their ability to maintain a balanced approach to political coverage. Some are recognised for the quality of their news content. However, some other organisations have lost credibility and audience share as a result of various pressures. The platformisation trend has had a particularly disruptive impact on public service media (PSM) organisations. The challenge of adapting to the new digital landscape has been significant, requiring careful navigation to maintain the core values that guide their operations, as defined by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU): universality, independence, excellence, diversity, accountability and innovation. This article employs a recently developed framework for examining PSM and draws upon field research to analyse the transformation of PSM in response to platformisation-related pressures in four European countries: Austria, Romania, Spain and the United Kingdom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on the Irish referendum experience have generally accepted that political parties play a fundamental role in the direct democratic process. While this is rarely problematised, parties often campaign in referendums in order to steer them towards outcomes that are strategically beneficial. Contemporary research on Irish referendums has delved into how parties shape their campaigns to achieve these goals, but a more preliminary question is still to be addressed: to what extent do parties participate in referendum campaigns? This paper attempts to do so by examining campaign expenditure, which offers a concrete quantitative indicator for party engagement vis-à-vis referendums. Departing from theory on party behaviour and referendum instrumentalization, the article takes into account Irish regulations on campaign finance before offering a descriptive and explorative comparison of the expenditure of Irish political parties in recent referendum campaigns. Several patterns within the data are then discussed in light of potential influential factors identified in previous scholarly work. Results suggest that a referendum's topic and its salience in the public sphere, as well as a party's financial resources and government status, could explain party behaviour in Irish referendum campaigns, and a set of congruent hypotheses for future research are formulated in the conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While early modern Spain may seem a world away, it is an extremely rich and relevant context for gaining a better understanding of the Rhetoric of Health, specifically the power of metaphor, in the related spheres of policy-making and public debate. It was a time and place in which the urban populace's physical well-being depended upon the fortunes of theatrical performances due to a system of alms for hospitals driven by ticket receipts. Anti-theatricalists argued that the immoral nature of theatrical performances made them spiritually and medically detrimental to society. Pro-theatricalists argued that plays were always a public good on balance because they raised much-needed funds for hospitals. Instead of producing a conflict between morality and public health, each side reinforced their connection until the two topics became nearly inseparable in the sphere of public debate. While pro-theatricalists mainly stayed with their arguments about funding hospitals, anti-theatricalists developed a new strategy of literalising the metaphor of theatre as a "plague of the republic" and arguing that immoral entertainment brought literal disease to the populace as a punishment from God. This exemplifies Stephen Pender's observation of how, in an early modern medical context, "Rhetoric as a way of perceiving probabilities and adjusting one's argument to the audience and circumstance offers a model of ethical action and interaction". This article is organised chronologically to track specific adjustments to a specific public-health debate that rely upon moral metaphors of medicine. Each side wrangled over these metaphors in an effort to break a deadlock in a public-health policy debate with entertainment, finance, and morality at its centre. By the end of the seventeenth century, anti-theatricalists finally found their best rhetorical weapon in the literalisation of the "plague of the republic" metaphor, but it only offered a short-term solution to banning theatre contingent upon the ebb and flow of epidemics. Simultaneously, the finance structure of funding hospitals began to erase the role of hospitals from the longstanding debate about the morality of public theatre. The case of early modern Spain provides valuable lessons about the power of metaphor in the Rhetoric of Healthcare that are still applicable today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the memoirs of two Bengali revolutionary women, Bina Das' Srinkhal Jhankar published in 1948, translated as Bina Das: A Memoir, and Kamala Dasgupta's Rakter Akshare (Written in Blood) in 1954 to argue how their subjective desire and experience dismantle the gendered rhetoric of nationalism in colonial Bengal. The accounts of Bina and Kamala present their involvement in militant activism and subsequent imprisonment. Notably, there is an inherent urge in their writings to sacrifice life for the nation and a determination not to retreat from the torturous conditions of the colonial prison. The paper contends that the rhetoric of nationalism in colonial Bengal is embedded in hegemonic masculinity that initially confined women to the spiritual and domestic realm and later allowed them to be educated and modern without acknowledging their subjectivity. Activities of these political women thus destabilise the gender discourse prevalent in the private and public sphere of colonial society, which calls for a revision of the nationalist historiography. So, this essay will examine how tropes of the body, self-sacrifice, and penal experience, as produced in these memoirs, negotiate the nationalist ideology, subvert the binary of masculine and feminine, and establish their political subjectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarly understanding of what "journalism" is has long been shaped by discourse on what "hard news" or political journalism entails. Less academic attention has been paid to perceived alternative forms of journalism, such as lifestyle journalism. This study aims to investigate how lifestyle journalists construct their professional identity in the context of a grand narrative of journalism that has been dominantly shaped by ideals related to politics, democracy, and the public sphere. Through 31 interviews with Singaporean lifestyle journalists, this study found that lifestyle journalists subscribe to both in-group and out-group discourses, where they simultaneously place themselves within but also outside the boundaries of journalism. However, the lifestyle journalists also articulate an alternative emerging discourse of a standalone-group, where lifestyle journalism should be seen as a profession completely divorced from normative understandings of journalism. This reflects lifestyle journalism's longstanding—yet perhaps untenable—liminal positioning on the periphery of journalism's boundaries and provides further support for understanding journalism as a discursively constructed profession that is constantly in flux. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the extent to which European Council summits contribute to the Europeanisation of national public spheres, focusing on the use of X (formerly known as Twitter). The empirical analysis provided here entails quantitative elements on four European Council summits held in 2023: to what extent did X users located in different EU member states post about the European Council summits? On which issues did X users focus during the summits? To what extent did this activity generate transnational interactions? Through which language did X users mostly communicate? The findings seek to feed both the public discussion and academic dialogue about the impact of social media on the establishment of an online European public sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Value polarization is one of the key factors in societal development. This research focuses on whether opinions concerning gender roles in the domestic and public spheres are polarized in European societies, a topic still under-investigated. Based on the fifth wave of European Values Study data (2017–2020), the study shows that gender role attitudes in the domestic sphere are more polarized than those in the public sphere. Polarization by education, level of income, migration background, and degree of religiosity is stronger for gender role attitudes in the domestic sphere, whereas polarization by gender is stronger for gender role attitudes in the public sphere. Both gender role attitudes in the public and domestic spheres are most strongly polarized by education. At the same time, belonging to a social group with higher education, higher income, and lower religiosity can promote more progressive views towards gender roles. Opinions in Eastern European countries tend to seem more polarized than in Western European countries, even if with some exceptions. In countries with a higher level of gender equality, the level of polarization is a bit lower, while in countries where there is a remarkable rise of anti-gender narratives, opponent and conflictual views are higher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To what extent does the notion of the public sphere serve to assess Latin America in networked times? The debate over the modern condition of the region and the contradictions of enlightenment values shaping a land conquered by the sword provides the backdrop for evaluating the pertinence of Habermas's The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere in the region, specifically regarding the chances the subaltern has to speak. Acknowledging its modern imprint and the varied criticisms it has received, the notion of the public sphere a la Habermas, offers a set of criteria for assessing the processes and outcomes of media and public communication development in Latin America. In this sense, this article connects the colonial imprint of Latin American nations, its struggles over media power, the meaning of communication, and the arrival of the Internet and Web 2.0 in the region through the notion of the public sphere. This overview exposes the features of the Internet in Latin America that perpetuate inequality, injustice, and the lack of voice while raising questions about the actual life of the "public" as a concept in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mawlid, a sacred holiday commemorating the birth of the Prophet Muhammad, holds immense power in Morocco as a communal prayer event that animates citizens, transcending its religious significance to become a potent sociopolitical tool. This article delves into the multifaceted nature of Mawlid, examining its dynamic role as both a collective expression of faith and a means of governmental control. Through the example of the Qadiri Boutchichiyya Sufi order's annual Mawlid programming, it explores how the Moroccan government has skillfully harnessed Mawlid's enlivening energy to further its political agendas, utilizing it as a vector to transmit the kingdom's particular brand of Islam. However, while the government may seek to manipulate Mawlid for political gains, Moroccans are not mere pawns in this dynamic. On the contrary, the Mawlid's animating quality extends well beyond the public sphere and resonates deeply within the private lives of individuals. By delving into this intricate web of interactions, we can better grasp the vibrant and multivalent nature of religious expression in Morocco and its implications for the broader dynamics of faith-based governance in the country today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper explores how the Indian nation was constructed in the Indian media following the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution which provided special status to the erstwhile Muslim-majority state of Jammu & Kashmir. It analyses news editorials published in the largest Indian English Times of India between 5 August 2019 and 30 September 2019. Situated in the discursive turn in the media and nationalism studies, this article considers nationalism as a form of discourse. The Critical Discourse Analysis of the editorials reveals that the newspaper, like political actors, pursued a nationalistic agenda through selective remembering and forgetting of Kashmir's history and inclusion and exclusion of certain aspects of the Kashmir conflict to discursively construct the Indian nation. It presented Pakistan as the national "other" and otherised Kashmiris, especially "radicalised" youth of the Kashmir valley. It tried to construct a unified and homogenised Indian nation in which Kashmiris are included but as "domesticated" others. The editorials performed interpretative and persuasive roles to shape debates in public sphere over Article 370 and justified the Indian claim over territory of Kashmir. It authoritatively suggested the Indian government to differentiate "domesticated" Kashmiris from "undomesticated" others like militants and separatists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth of the so-called “bad” civil society or “uncivil” society has turned into an increasingly problematic phenomenon in contemporary democracies, with implications both in practice and in theory that have gone so far as to jeopardize the very concept of civil society. This article is framed within a solid theory of democracy – the Habermasian theory – and draws, in particular, on one of the most widely accepted conceptualisations of civil society – that of Jean Cohen and Andrew Arato – towards identifying a way to distinguish uncivil society from civil society. To that end, this article proposes a criterion and two types of politics for classifying social movements based on the extent to which their actions contribute to either damage or strengthen the public sphere as such. This conceptual work pursues a double objective. On the one hand, it seeks to respond to the issue of how to deal with uncivil society, whether we should engage and debate with it, ignore it, or condemn it. And, on the other, it aims to identify how civil society could – in theory and in practice – continue to yield valuable elements for contemporary democracies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proliferation of media, political and academic discourses on migration has contributed to the construction of an often fixed and stereotyped image of migrants, built in a context of ever-present crisis. A key feature of this process of objectification is a temporal stasis that traps people in what can be described as an eternal present of migration: an existence that begins with the act of migrating, to which one is continually brought back and reduced. This paper engages in a reflexive critique of the quasi-objectified status of migrants by focusing on the empirical case of migrants’ collective action. It examines the micro-level of participants who mobilize as migrants in the public sphere and explores how they make sense of the term migrant itself. Building on the analysis of life histories of participants, this paper outlines a temporal approach that gives primacy to their subjective time. Findings suggest that the experience of migration itself plays a marginal role in the decision to mobilize for migrants’ rights: friendships, family and community histories, experiences at work, ties with the local movement area provide complementary or alternative sites that trigger participation. Bridging the biographical and temporal dimensions, this work explores the internal reasons and meanings that sustain participation, beyond externally imposed labels that trap participants in the eternal present of migration. The temporal approach proposed complements the literature on migrants’ collective action, which has generally privileged a focus on space, and has wider implications for the study of activism by marginalized and precarious actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution is based on the thesis of a connection between media scandals, political scandals, including the scandalization of society, and the language used in everyday settings. Different kinds of scandals in politics, the media, and society have been common in the Russian public sphere. This could be seen as the preparation of an atmosphere in which overaggressive, demagogical communication is valued, where victims are portrayed as self-inflicted or even become the “real perpetrators.” This article aims to explore the extent to which this kind of scandalization and the provocation associated with it diffuse into social discourses, for example, everyday language. To do so, the characteristics of scandalous language are first elaborated based on the literature and a small corpus of media coverage of scandals. Then, data from YouTube with political as well as non-political content is examined to see if the same linguistic mode is used in these different communicative areas. The comments and discussions are analyzed in terms of their use of language, with a focus on the lexical and other indicators of a language of scandal. Its existence, dissemination, and linguistic integration are key to finding hints of a more general preference for provocative language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interaction between humans and intelligent personal assistants (IPAs) – such as Amazon Alexa, Microsoft Cortana, or Apple Siri – has become increasingly prevalent in our daily lives. These systems, equipped with natural language user interfaces (NLUI), facilitate seamless communication and offer assistance across various domains, from weather forecasts to scheduling tasks. Notably, leading IPAs often embody a feminine voice, thereby reflecting societal perceptions of femininity and contributing to their market appeal. This feminization process is particularly pronounced in cultural contexts such as that in Italy, where language distinctions reinforce gender norms. Despite existing research on gendered representations in technology design, there remains a gap in understanding how IPAs are depicted in the public sphere. Our study bridges this gap by analysing 12 years of media discourse on IPAs (2011–2023) in the 8 major Italian newspapers. Integrating insights from gender studies and science and technology studies, our analysis unveils the intricate interplay between gender representations and technological innovation. We found how gender stereotypes are located within representations of IPAs in mainstream Italian media, thereby influencing both their portrayal and future development trajectories. This research sheds light on the broader implications of gendered representations in technology, which impacts both societal perceptions and technological advancement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study delves into the intricate dynamics between tribal communities and states, acknowledging their complex relationships. While not aiming for exhaustive understanding, it aims to illuminate the convoluted nature of these connections, which often puzzle the average citizen entrenched within other societal structures. By examining the relationships between tribal societies and the Iraqi, Syrian, Saudi Arabian, and Israeli (Palestinian) states, focusing on the interplay between tribal and public spheres, this study presents four fundamental models. Its primary goal is to discern whether these connections reflect harmony, conflict, or accommodation with established authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A historical and legal study of the legal status and activities of the authorities of the Ukrainian People’s Republic (hereinafter - the UPR) in exile (late 1920-August 22, 1992). It is concluded that, since at the end of 1920 the authorities of the UPR lost influence on the population as a result of the establishment of Soviet power in most of the Ukrainian territories and the UPR actually ceased to exist, which was formally fixed by a peace treaty between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Soviet Russia on March 18, 1921. in Riga, the UNR authorities lost their state status and acquired public status. The content adopted by the Council of People’s Ministers and approved by the Chairman of the Directory on January 9, 1921 was analyzed. a normative act entitled “Law on the Council of the Republic,” in which the Council of the Republic was defined as “a temporary supreme authority of the people, which has full power.” The authorities of the UPR imitated state activity: the Council of the Republic-as legislative, the Council of People’s Ministers - as executive authority, the Head of the Directory-as the head of the UPR. After the termination of the existence of the Council of the Republic in August 1921 the functions of the UNR authorities in exile were carried out by the Head of the Directory and the Council of People’s Ministers. The content of the “Temporary Law on the Reorganization of the State Center of the UNR in Exile” of June 10, 1948, which established the competence of the constituent parts of the State Center of the UNR: President, Vice-President, Government, Ukrainian National Council, was studied. Based on the analysis of the content of this normative act, it was concluded that the State Center of the UPR in exile formally had the status of a public organization, but pretended to be a state authority and imitated state functions. According to this document, the Ukrainian National Council performs “the functions of a temporary legislative representation.” The relationship between the constituent parts of the State Center of the UPR in exile had to be revealed in the rule-making process and in the formation of the Government. The political responsibility of the Government to the Ukrainian National Council and the President of the UPR was envisaged. The Government’s accountability to the Ukrainian National Council and control over the UNR President were established. The UNR President was vested with the right to dissolve the Ukrainian National Council at the suggestion of the Government. The authorities formed on the basis of this normative act had the status of public and performed functions in international, normative, political, scientific and other spheres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses a theoretical framework for understanding gender in the legal profession, and in legal professionalism, over the past thirty years. Although women's subordinated position in legal professions across the globe seems well understood, the project of assessing the extent and the dynamics is ongoing in many jurisdictions and intersects with issues of race, gender in intricate and complex ways. The theoretical framework in this paper that aims to account for the multi-dimensional, multi-level and processual nature of change in the gendered profession draws on three main sources: Glucksmann's accounts of changing formations of labour, which provides a framework for understanding the exogenous and endogenous forces working on the profession; Fraser's concept of recognition and its relation to participation in the public sphere, and Bourdieu's conceptual vocabulary of field, capital and habitus, which facilitates understanding of the transactional processes which frame women's choices and which work to determine their position within the profession and organizations. The relevance of the framework will be illustrated through reference to a series of studies of gender and the profession, conducted since 1990. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the launch of his Chance 2000 political party and the accompanying performance during the German federal elections in 1998, Christoph Schlingensief reversed the understanding of responsibility from a help-yourself mentality to a collective attitude, giving marginalized groups political agency. What does it mean to become many; to act, move, and be perceived as a collective? Drawing on Judith Butler's notions of connectedness, this article proposes a reconfiguration of collective responsibility and argues that performances like Chance 2000 can produce a consequential awareness of individual actions that contribute to the shaping of the collective in the assembly while displaying and maintaining their inherent diversity. Using Karen Barad's agential realism as a theoretical framework, this article furthermore suggests that Schlingensief's enactments of collective responsibility produce dynamic connections that have the potential to change the agency of the collective. What happens in the spaces and moments of assembling creates conditions of collective responsibility in the inevitable inclusions and exclusions that these (intra-)actions produce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article delves into the perception of monastics from Larung Gar Buddhist Academy of Western China concerning the intertwining relationship between Buddhism and science, along with the impact of this perception on their worldview and life trajectory. Many monastics at Larung Gar Buddhist Academy initially held a high regard for science, dismissing Buddhism as superstition. However, upon gaining a comprehensive understanding of Buddhism through various opportunities, they came to believe that certain tenets of Buddhism are compatible with science, even suggesting that Buddhism could address some of the methodological and epistemological limitations of science and offer solutions to some issues that science is unable to resolve. This ultimately led them to embrace Buddhism and renounce worldly life. This study employs a case study to investigate the understanding of the relationship between Buddhism and science amongst the general public in contemporary China, an area underexplored by previous scholarship that predominantly concentrated on the philosophical scrutiny of the apologetic discourses towards the reconciliation between Buddhism and science of influential Buddhist ascetics and lay practitioners. Also, this study endeavors to demonstrate that despite the ongoing secularization of contemporary Chinese Buddhism in the "public sphere", within the "private sphere" of Chinese Buddhism, there remain individuals who are pursuing the religious, sacred, and transcendental dimensions of Buddhism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades, policy learning has been often viewed as a force for the common good, a process that aims at creating value for the public through problem‐solving. While learning can indeed contribute to value creation, darkness also lurks therein, where learning can also contribute to value destruction. Yet, the dark side of policy learning remains under‐explored and under‐theorized, particularly going beyond meso‐level policy and organizational failures or "mishaps." This article draws on policy learning and value theories to conceptualize two types of policy learning failures and plot how they can contribute to the destruction of value in the public sphere: misdirected learning design failures (non‐deliberate and cybernetic) and normative failures (intentional and deontological). This is done while addressing the two key facets of value in the public sphere; public values, being the guiding principles of policymaking and governance, as well as public value, being the worth of public services delivered to the citizenry. In doing so, this contributes to the literature by addressing calls for exploring the dark side of learning, expanding our understanding of learning outcomes beyond organizational and policy level implications, and developing novel fundamental understandings of value destruction mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To illuminate the varied and sometimes contradictory modes of public engagement practiced by right and far-right publics, this forum contribution introduces a concept of anti-woke publics. Representing themselves as fair-minded occupants of a political middle ground, anti-woke publics characterize wokeness as a divisive and destructive leftist ideology. They draw on discursive strategies of abstraction, universalism, and ahistoricism that obscure their ideological orientation and divert public attention from the unequal, unjust, and anti-democratic consequences of their advocacy. Their public engagement exhibits a fundamental tension between professed commitments to equal opportunity and their public advocacy in defense of an unequal status quo. Anti-woke publics situate the individual as the primary social actor and champion colorblindness as the ethical orientation for engaging diverse public actors. Sharing advocacy networks with avowedly supremacist publics, anti-woke publics facilitate the wider circulation of supremacist discourses among influential and mainstream publics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research was to identify and rank social factors effective in transforming Iran's public libraries into social centers and develop a conceptual model. This is a mixed research conducted with a systematic grounded theory approach. Four effective community factors in transforming public libraries into community centers were identified: 1. promotion of social activities, 2. participation of public groups, 3. awareness of the community situation, and 4. promotion of community skills. By applying the theory of the public sphere, public libraries can inform people about government decisions and facilitate public debate between the government and citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though extensive literature exists on Moroccan women in the public sphere, simultaneously less research explores the ways in which men 'do domesticity'. This paper will examine the ways urban Moroccan middle-class men interact within the private spheres of life, why they do so and what this means for gendered subjectivities in Morocco. For some urban middle-class Moroccan men, being a good father means taking an active role in his children's lives and taking care of them with the help of his wife. This is not true for all urban middle-class men, but most said that they were more willing to help with cooking, cleaning and childcare than their father had been: showing a generational shift. Additionally, most participants said that doing housework does not lower the level of a man's masculinity. Despite this, every Moroccan woman that I talked to does most reproductive labour around the house. This paper explores the dynamic nature of Moroccan masculinity across the life cycle: from early marriage, to being a father and being retired. This generational shift is happening due to the confluence of structural changes in education, socioeconomic class and occupation in addition to individuals' desire to be active fathers and husbands. I place urban Moroccan middle-class masculinities in context with Moroccan femininities and highlight both male and female voices. These findings are based on 17 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Rabat, Morocco including 53 semi-structured interviews and extensive participant observation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a yearlong ethnographic study, we actively participated as members of the national planning committee for fourteen local climate conferences, we examined how citizen participation was imagined and enacted. We introduce a framework for studying the relationship between cognitive engagement, learning, and civic engagement in the public sphere. We describe the different levels of cognitive and civic engagement in the design of climate conference activities. The findings suggest that the planners' approach to democracy, the involvement of environmental NGOs, and individual attitudes toward environmental change, may collectively contribute to diminished levels of cognitive and civic engagement among residents. Furthermore, we observed that more collaborative interpretations of cognitive and civic engagement align closely with deliberative democracy approaches, emphasizing inclusive, dialogical processes. We discuss the implications of these findings for the future design of climate conferences and how they relate to the evolving roles of environmental NGOs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We know more about 9th Infantry than about other regiments in the Wehrmacht. Its 'Prussian' officer cadre produced two wartime field marshals, 27 generals, and a president of Germany in 1984–94. Several erstwhile officers conspired ahead of the putsch on 20 July 1944. Traditional accounts suggested that the regiment was 'untarnished' and not implicated in National Socialist crimes. This paper tests this by drawing on unexplored or little-known German, Polish, Jewish, and ex-Soviet sources. It finds that 9th Infantry did not differ from peers in supporting and joining illegalities in 1939–41. Moreover, in facilitating repression and Jewish ghettos in Poland and in shooting Soviet POWs it exceeded 'typical' criminality. Distortions seen in the traditional accounts are deconstructed. Some persist today in Germany's public sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we theoretically conceptualize and empirically investigate translocal spatial arrangements of networked public spheres on social media. In digital communication networks, actors easily connect with others globally, crossing the borders of cities, nations and languages. However, the spatial notions evoked in public sphere research to date remain largely territorial. We propose a theoretical framework drawing on Löw's sociology of space, which highlights the relational and translocal nature of spatial arrangements. In a case study of the translocal interaction network of Berlin Twitter users, we demonstrate how this framework can be leveraged empirically using network analysis. Despite the overall network of Berlin's Twittersphere spanning the whole world, we find territorialized as well as deterritorialized translocal communities. This points to the simultaneity of territorial and networked spatial logics in digital public spheres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In critique of Habermas's public sphere, Nancy Fraser offered the 'subaltern counterpublic' – arenas of refuge from and counter-organizing against the wider public. But does this (re)configuration of the public sphere hold in the age of extremism on the internet? I examine the trajectory of incel as a community, interrogating whether this extremist contingent follows Fraser's subaltern counterpublic or if they exemplify a new counterpublic – the ultra altern, or 'ultern', counterpublic. I explore the ways that the ultern counterpublic differs from the subaltern and its relationship to the general public sphere, particularly within the critical intervention of the internet. I finally offer a brief analysis of another movement – the KKK – within my new framing, to further detail the differences between the ultern and subaltern counterpublic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Produce Camp 2021, an online Chinese talent show, an underdog named Lelush rose to fame as a slack laborer icon. This study investigated this case through a critical discourse analysis incorporating media events theory, the concept of carnival, aesthetic public sphere theory, and the concept of structures of feeling. It was revealed that the audience related to Lelush's slackness on carnivalesque social media, indirectly addressing work oppression and social stratification in an aesthetic public sphere. However, the audience's ambiguities, where they also objectified Lelush, somewhat diminished the aesthetic discussions' critical potential. This contradiction suggested a new structure of feeling associated with rapid social changes in China. Besides, this study demonstrated that although the audience discourse appeared challenging, it was harnessed by the producer for commercial benefit. Meanwhile, as the audience's critical discourse did not directly threaten the political legitimacy, the Party-State allowed it for political and economic purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language is one way to understand a society and its culture, including masculine norms. Exploring evolutionary masculinity through language is an intriguing concept to revisit. The research examines words synonymous with "men" in Indonesia and reviews their usage to depict current masculinity in the country. This research applied discourse analysis to corpora sourced from the Leipzig Corpora and CQPWeb. The data were analyzed using semantic preference to find meanings and semantic prosody to find connotations of pria, lelaki, and jantan. The findings reveal differences in the meanings and usage of the pria, lelaki, and jantan words. The difference in meaning is that pria is an adult male, whereas lelaki is a representation of men who are not limited in age, and jantan is interpreted as the genitals of animals or plants and men in the context of masculinity. According to usage, the word pria is frequently used in the public sphere, such as in the context of work and news discourse. Lelaki tends to be used more in the personal sphere, such as family, rather than in public settings. Jantan tends to be used in public discourse. The connotations of pria, lelaki, and jantan is neutral. This study successfully demonstrated the shift in Indonesian masculinity from traditional to new forms, indicating the impact of language studies on the analysis of masculinization in Indonesia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the public sphere of South Asian countries, prominent movements to formally recognise gender diversity and decriminalise same-sex relations have had effects in Nepal and India, but same-sex relations remain a criminal offence in Sri Lanka and other South Asian countries. Against this background, the article analyses an early novel by the Sri Lankan Canadian writer Shyam Selvadurai, showing how prohibition and tolerance go rather uneasily hand in hand within the public and private spheres of Sri Lanka, creating anxious precarities in the everyday lives of individuals, their families and supporters within a heteronormative framework. Since formal legal recognition per se can never fully guarantee the freedom to live one's life as one desires, the article discusses, in light of Selvadurai's work, to what extent private individual strategies of navigation and self-management remain crucial for non-heteronormative individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aims to empirically verify the hypotheses that the increase in the share of women legislator in politics has the potential to reduce levels of corruption within the Parliament and overall political corruption levels. Using data from the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) platform, fixed effects, and generalised method of moments (GMM-System) models are estimated for a set of 154 countries between 1995 and 2018. The results show that when considering corruption within the legislative house, the greater share of women in politics is associated with lower levels of corruption. Even after controlling for various societal factors, the results confirm the positive effect of women's participation in parliament on the decline of corruption. Yet, this effect does not seem to spill over into other branches of government and sectors of the public sphere. When considering the level of more general corruption, it responds much more to variations in structural aspects, as democratic maturity and equality in the distribution of political power among different socioeconomic strata, than to women's participation in parliamentary seats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that tahakkum [ التَّحَكُّمِ ], an indigenous intercultural communication concept, impedes the functioning of the public sphere and underlines the failure (or unwillingness) of the authoritarian state and political actors to set conditions for plural deliberation and good governance. Using the critical cases of the sliding back of Islamist influence and the hirak (movement) against water privatization in an oasis town in southeast Morocco, the article theorizes tahakkum and proposes "other-interculturality" as an-other epistemological and ethical framework to articulate an intercultural communication model that interrogates embedded layers of power and domination, champions collective solidarity, and celebrates diversity without occluding difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of the linguistic landscape has been examined as an arena of negotiation, struggle, and contestation, where individuals and communities play roles in the symbolic construction of the public sphere. Transitory linguistic landscapes show the power struggle between different communities or how individuals claim their rights in the public sphere. Specifically, political demonstrations can influence public opinion and change policies and law. The mass protest analyzed in the present study aimed to inform public opinion about a public healthcare problem and to push the regional government to take action to resolve the issue. Following the frameworks of geosemiotics, interpellation, and dialogism, the focus of the present study is to examine qualitatively how the political and social action of a mass demonstration is mediated and created through multimodal resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advertisers in Israel routinely omit representation of women and girls as a form of adaptation to norms prevalent among ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities, by which the representation or allusion to a woman's body, voice, or garments is considered immodest and distracting. What, if any, should be the response of antidiscrimination law to exclusionary advertisements, and why is this question worth exploring? This article argues that laws banning discrimination in the provision of products and services should also apply to advertisements that categorically refrain from presenting women. Beyond protecting individual members of vulnerable groups, antidiscrimination law should partake in freeing the public sphere of messages that reinforce discriminatory values. The intended, overt, and complete denial of women's existence merits the law's intervention in commercial speech. After conceptualizing the harm caused to unspecified individuals and defining discriminatory advertisements, we outline the considerations that should guide the designing of rules against discriminatory ads and apply them to a set of real-life incidents of exclusionary advertisements, demonstrating how to assess the severity of discrimination in each case. Finally, we consider the free speech implications, as well as the argument that liberal multicultural accommodation renders "modest" advertisements legitimate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author thematizes the operation of the political market of attention that is propelled by the willingness of citizens to credit populist leaders with their digital political labour. Mutual, nevertheless unequal, exchange of attention leads to the formation of a spiral of attention. Its expansive character is sustained by the strategically subsidized recognition of populist leaders. Accumulated attention, i. e. attention capital, is the resource that is used to maintain populist networked public spheres, while citizens are proletarianized: they are invited to apply their labour power to distributing political ideas but are pevented from evaluating the influence of competing public actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the uses to which 'dignity' is put in regulating and conceptualising our digital era. It considers the example of Europe, and particularly the European Union's uses of dignity in policy-making and regulatory innovation in the digital context. More generally, it considers the normative scope and significance of dignity as it adapts to novel challenges to agency and vulnerability, and to changing public and private spheres. It concludes that, while ambiguous, dignity offers a powerful principle for articulating present and future challenges for a digital era. Other norms may be less ambiguous or more attractive as principles around which to build a body of jurisprudence, but dignity remains a crucial discourse for connecting micro and macro concerns about regulation and lived experience, as well as for connecting concerns about autonomy and embodiment as these continue to be transformed in a digital epoch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2024 special edition of the Journal of Religious Education focuses on papers presented at the AULRE conference, with a theme of 'RE Futures?'. Keynote speakers Janet Orchard and Bob Bowie contribute to this edition, which explores contemporary issues in religious education. Topics covered include far-right extremism, integration of knowledge, recruitment of RE teachers, and the status of RE in Catholic schools in Ireland. The edition also delves into the legacy of Ignacio Ellacuría and the challenges of balancing social outreach with neoliberal demands in Catholic universities. [Extracted from the article]

This paper is oriented around a discussion of the question as to whether religious education (RE) in the public sphere should be regarded as a place of disruption. That is, whether post-pandemic and in a time of climate and ecological crisis, religious education is understood to be serving as a mechanism for inducting children into the existing ways of the world or, whether it should instead be regarded as offering young people the possibility of interrupting the status quo. The question at the heart of this paper turns around a consideration of what education itself should achieve at this point in history and whether religion in educational contexts has something significant to offer. Questions around the nature of religion are addressed through going to the work of Ramon Panikkar, to enable further exploration of an understanding of religion in existential terms and not only as belief and practice. The argument is brought together, exemplified with a case study, asserting that bringing children and young people to 'know and understand' religious matters can no longer be seen as sufficient aim for religious education and why this might matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) across various fields has significantly impacted how individuals construct and present their identities, particularly on social media. This brief communication explains the concept of digital twinning within the public sphere, where AI-generated images create virtual twins. We examine the phenomenon of attachment to AI-generated self-image, proposing that a perceived sense of emptiness predicts attachment to AI-generated self-image. Using the empty self-theory as a theoretical foundation, we argue that individuals experiencing feelings of emptiness are more likely to form deep emotional bonds with their AI-generated self-image. They may find solace by associating their sense of emptiness with AI-generated self-images, similar to idealised images in advertising. This attachment can manifest as either subjective, where users believe the AI-generated image truly represents them, or objective, where the image is seen as a possession. In future research, it would be valuable to investigate the various factors that contribute to an individual's inclination to form an attachment to AI-generated self-images. Deep exploration of the difference between objective and subjective attachment and quantifying this proposed relationship through empirical studies could provide valuable insights into the interplay between technology and human psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comments from Lorenza Fontana, Tiffany Joseph, Ali Meghji, and Ann Morning shed different lights on Seeing Others, and bring me to see the book differently. They draw a connection between its argument and my past research on worth, racism, group boundaries, ordinary universalism, and other themes. Some are particularly drawn to how I describe change as proceeding from ongoing cultural processes, even in periods of cultural backlash like the one we are experiencing now. Others are concerned with how to engage the most conservative and racist members of our society in a project of greater social inclusion and universal recognition of dignity, at a time of growing political polarization, and when social media feed miscommunication in the public sphere. Although this exchange leaves many questions open, it can and will contribute to feeding pressing reflections around some of the unavoidable challenges of our time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the main argument that in the Indonesian context, biblical theology should be able to play a crucial role not only in the church and academic spheres but also, and more importantly, in the wider society by overturning the hegemony of colonialism in biblical theology and developing postcolonial biblical theology in the actual context of Indonesia. In undergirding this argument, the article first puts forward the situation of biblical theology in scientific and societal discourse in general and in the Indonesian context in particular. The findings in this analysis are followed by an explanation of the importance of developing a horizon in elaborating biblical theology in the Indonesian context informed by seven distinguishing public issues in Indonesian society. Biblical theology must be encouraged to penetrate the public sphere. In elaborating on biblical theology in the Indonesian context, postcolonial studies are highly significant in connecting biblical theology and the Indonesian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a novel conception of freedom of thought as the right to epistemic self‐realization. The recognition of this right is characterized here as a modally robust normative status that I think one has as a potential knower in an epistemic community. It is a status that one cannot enjoy without a specific form of institutionalized intellectual respect and support. To explain and defend this conception of freedom of thought, it is contrasted here with more traditionally "negative" conceptions of freedom of thought, in terms of not being interfered with. It is also contrasted here with a "positive" conception of freedom of thought derived from a recently prominent account of doxastic agency as grounded in the rational capacity to self‐determine one's own response to reasons. In both cases, the crux of the argument in this paper is that a conception of freedom of thought as a right to epistemic self‐realization makes better sense of why we fear the counter‐liberatory forces of propaganda and regulated thinking, and also why we hold out hope for the liberating potential of education and critical engagement with expertise in the public sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the problem of how Buddhism was reinstitutionalized in Russia in the frame of the meta process of mediatization. The empirical part of this study included two stages and was conducted during 2020–2024. In this paper, the authors focused mainly on the peculiarities of constructing strategies in the Internet and new media via traditional Gelug ethnic offline organizations, the Russian branches of the International Karma Kagyu Community, International Dzogchen Community and Russian-speaking community of Theravada converts. The methodological framework of the research included the institutional perspective developed by the Danish media scholar Stig Hjarvard for studying the mediatization of religion and the concept of "mediatized public religion" by Mia Lövheim and Marta Axner, as well as the concept of "digital religious innovators" by Heidi Campbell. The authors revealed that the processes of digitalization and mediatization have resulted in the emergence of Russian mediatized Buddhism. Various trends in modern Russian Buddhism are disproportionally represented in the public sphere of media; representation directly correlates with the strategies that Digital Buddhist creatives of different streams—Gelugpa traditional, Dzogchen, Theravada or Karma Kagyu—have chosen in relation to the Internet and new media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors present a series of ideas about the intrapsychic and interpersonal dynamics of the classroom. The premise of the paper is that individuals' early experience of schooling, including their relationships with teachers, can have a longstanding impact in relation to navigating relations with authority and power as well as attitudes and beliefs about the capacity to learn and to be successful. A new model introducing the notion of parallel private and public spheres in relation to structural ego states is presented. The authors introduce the concepts of the teacher archetype, educational relational units, and working with the Child ego state in educational work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tech media giants are no strangers to controversy in relation to the payment of corporate tax, such as the cases of Apple and Facebook (Meta) in Ireland, Alphabet (Google) in the UK and Amazon in Luxembourg. While the tech media giants are not the only global corporations that take advantage of international tax avoidance opportunities, this paper argues that their hypermobility and unprecedented cash assets place them especially well to take advantage of these practices. Moreover, the nature of some of the commodities, such as information, software or intellectual property that can be moved at the touch of a button; or even a simple re-conception of where the property resides can mean a state gaining or losing billions of dollars. This paper will explore how tech media giants are redefining property and commodity forms and how this allows for creative tax policies. Moreover, the conception of where immaterial commodities, such as pure information, is located (or not located) challenges tax collection strategies for the state. To explore these conceptions, this paper discusses the ideology surrounding the tech media industry, a particular brand of liberalism coined the 'Californian Ideology': An ideology that can sometimes be described as transgressive, but also one that may legitimise tax avoidance. The ideology gives a somewhat nebulous definition of what property is (and isn't) and its location or non-location, thereby negating justification for taxation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present article, key conceptual and regulative requirements for quality public democratic talk to be maintained are identified and the linguistic economy of civic conversation about common affairs in the Swedish public sphere gauged; the relationship between public talk, power, and identity is charted; and exposure and response horizons for further quality slippage with Swedens's institutional frameworks visited. A distinction between width and amp difference is introduced to separate democratically acceptable from unviable modes of conversational engagement and provide a new platform for analysing this space. Democratic history and theory is also visited, showing how cognitive moral conversation is a precondition for democratic governance. It is ultimately shown that if democratic politics wishes to remain within its remit, key ideals need safeguarding. It is concluded that the well-known challenges brought out by Levitsky & Ziblatt have not yet affected Swedish politics as they have American politics, but that risks for graver deterioration of struggling conversational and normative formats are visible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political polarisation, e.g. following the refugee movements of 2015 or the Covid pandemic, is often explained by emotions. The latter are widely exploited as a political strategy, while points of view are often discredited as based on mere emotion rather than "rational" thought. This development challenges the idea of participants being moved by the "unforced force of the better argument" (Habermas 2001) or the idea that consent was the goal of debating. Not only has this resulted in an environment of "post-truth" (Hyvönen 2018), but the motivation of participants to take issue with political questions can be described more interestingly than as a search for truth or a better reasoning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]