Recommending Books for Purchase (Bulletin 80 - June 2020): Political Communication

This book explores the thirty-year trajectory of the Free Patriotic Movement that aimed to achieve the freedom, sovereignty and independence of Lebanon from the Lebanese political elite and Syrian hegemony. It sheds light on the movement's activism, changes and sectarianism throughout the stages of movement emergence, persistence and party transformation. The author shows how the movement built on opportunities that culminated in its rise, both in civil society and nationally, despite a number of challenges. The book also reveals the formation of intricate units and communication channels to mobilize activism and increase commitment to the movement's cause. While discussing the significance of Michel Aoun and Gebran Bassil to the future of the FPM, the author asserts that various party dimensions and practices are conditioned by regional and international politics.

Beyond Slacktivism examines how routine social media use shapes political participation. Many commentators have argued that activism has been compromised by "slacktivism," a pejorative term that refers to supposedly inauthentic, low-threshold forms of engagement online. Dennis argues that this critique has an overly narrow focus. He offers a novel theoretical framework--the continuum of participation--to help illuminate how and why citizens use social networking sites to consume news, discuss civic matters, and engage in politics. This idea is explored in two interrelated settings. Firstly, in an activist context, through an ethnography of the campaigning organisation 38 Degrees. Secondly, within day-to-day life, by combining evidence of behaviour online with reflective diaries. Drawing on this rich data on individual-level attitudes and behaviours, Dennis challenges slacktivism as a judgement on contemporary political action. Beyond Slacktivism provides an account of how the seemingly mundane everyday use of social media can be beneficial to democracy. 

This book focuses on the constant tension between democracy and conspiratorial behavior in the new global order. It addresses the prevalence of conspiracy theories in the phenomenon of Donald Trump and Trumpism, and the paranoid style of American politics that existed long before, first identified with Richard Hofstadter. Hellinger looks critically at both those who hold conspiracy theory beliefs and those who rush to dismiss them. Hellinger argues that we need to acknowledge that the exercise of power by elites is very often conspiratorial and invites both realistic and outlandish conspiracy theories. How we parse the realistic from the outlandish demands more attention than typically accorded in academia and journalism. Tensions between global hegemony and democratic legitimacy become visible in populist theories of conspiracy, both on the left and the right. He argues that we do not live in an age in which conspiracy theories are more profligate, but that we do live in an age in which they offer a more profound challenge to the constituted state than ever before.

This book provides the analytical framework for understanding the relationship between media scandals, executive accountability and the crisis of democracy. The empirical findings are based on an original database of 6000 media allegations and investigations in Russia, Germany and Bulgaria. Observations gained from the case studies are then placed in relation to a systematic analysis and critique of more than 100 models of the transformation and crisis of democracy. The book will be of particular interest to researchers focusing on democratic theory and political thought, as well as those working empirically in the field of democratic systems.          

This book explores the interconnected ways in which the control of knowledge has become central to the exercise of political, economic, and social power. Building on the work of International Political Economy scholar Susan Strange, this multidisciplinary volume features experts from political science, anthropology, law, criminology, women's and gender studies, and Science and Technology Studies, who consider how the control of knowledge is shaping our everyday lives. From "weaponised copyright" as a censorship tool, to the battle over control of the internet's "guts," to the effects of state surveillance at the Mexico-U.S. border, this book offers a coherent way to understand the nature of power in the twenty-first century.

This book analyses the coverage of elections that occurred between September 2015 and February 2016 in six European countries (Greece, Portugal, Poland, Croatia, Spain and Ireland). The sample examined includes all news stories published during the official electoral campaign in different types of media outlets: three newspapers per country covering centre-left and centre-right wing political leaning, as well as reference and tabloid papers; three main television news broadcasts covering commercial/private and public broadcast television channels; and three papers that are published only online, taking into account their levels of audience and importance within each national media and political system. The book also examines different connections to the EU and to the Euro Crisis. Questions such as the following guide the overall analysis: In what ways is news election coverage similar and different in these countries? Which issues are mostly covered by the news media and how? Are there patterns of election news coverage in these six European countries? This book is indispensable reading for researchers and students in the field of the media coverage of election campaigns, political communication and populism. Chapters 4 and 8 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

"In their comparative analysis of several universities from different parts of the world, the authors make a case for the critical roles that higher education institutions can play in building the civic framework in a society." --Kyle Farmbry, Professor, School of Public Affairs and Administration, Rutgers University-Newark, United States "By defining community, discussing how universities are often contested spaces, and covering how universities and students engage their communities, the authors make the case for the future university as one that facilitates civic health." --William Hatcher, Associate Professor, Augusta University, United States; Co-Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Public Affairs Education "With a rich variety of historic notions, views, projects, examples and policies, the book inspires to re-think current positioning of students, staff and academic institutions in society." --Goos Minderman, Professor (Extraordinary), University of Stellenbosch Business School, South Africa This book adds to a robust dialogue about the role of higher education in society by examining the promotion of civic health through university-community partnerships and the role of intellectual leaders, scientists, philosophers, university administrators and students in shaping whole or parts of the world. Our global society faces significant social and environmental challenges. Professors and whole universities have an obligation to help address these issues; how they do so is subject to social, cultural, and institutional context. With lessons from Americans, British, Estonians, Lithuanians, Russians, South Africans and beyond, the authors describe the state of the practice and provide frameworks through which universities and people working within or in partnership with can affect change in communities and civic lives.

This book considers how the practical and public policy relevance of research might be increased, and academics and practitioners can better engage to define research agendas and deliver findings relevant to accounting and accountability in the public services. To do so, an international comparative analysis of the research-practice gap in public sector accounting has been undertaken. This involved academic perspectives from over twenty countries, and practitioner perspectives from leading international professional accounting bodies actively involved in the public services arena. It was found that research is valued for informing practice, but engaging at a high level of policy engagement has been primarily by a small group of experienced researchers. For other researchers the impact accomplished may not always be valued highly in the academic community relative to other, more scholarly, activities. The book therefore looks at how engagement and impact between academics and practitioners can be increased.

This book analyzes e-participation in smart cities.  In recent decades, information and communication technologies (ICT) have played a key role in the democratic political and governance process by allowing easier interaction between governments and citizens, and the increased ability of citizens to participate in the production chain of public services.  E-participation plays and important role in the development of smart cities and smart communities , but it has not yet been extensively studied.  This book fills that gap by combining empirical and theoretical research to analyze actual practices of citizen involvement in smart cities and build a solid framework for successful e-participation in smart cities.  The book is divided into three parts.  Part I discusses smart technologies and their role in improving e-participation in smart cities.  Part II deals with models of e-participation in smart cities and the organization issues affecting the implementation of e-participation; these chapters analyze the efficiency of governance models in relation to the establishment of smart cities.  Part III proposes incentives to motivate increased participation by governments and cititzenry within the smart cities context.  Written by an international panel of experts and practitioners, this book will be a convenient source of information on e-participation in smart cities and will be valuable to academics, researchers, policy-makers, public managers, citizens, international organizations and anyone who has a stake in enhancing citizen engagement in smart cities.