FEAR and "The great reset": Analysis of the World Economic Forum's post-COVID agenda videos and the adverse reactions to them

This article compares the ideological positions found in the visions of the future proposed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in “The Great Reset” campaign and in the internet users’ reaction to it. In this YouTube campaign, the WEF presents what it understands the “new normal” should be –understood as the new social, economic, and political relations after the COVID-19 pandemic.The YouTube users’ comments reject the agenda and express different grounds for such an attitude. This study identifies the main ideas and ideologies within the comments and in the presentation of the WEF’s campaign using the psychoanalytical political theory. The results reveal that the agenda and reactions to it are motivated by the exacerbated state of inequality and suffering caused by the current pandemic. While “The Great Reset” attempts to save capitalism by integrating human values, the comments contain populist and conspiratorial ideas. Although they rely on different epistemological grounds, the analysis reveals that both share a common understanding of a society that separates the populace against the ruling elites, who have become wealthier during the pandemic

The Dark Sides of Social Policy: From Neoliberalism to Resurgent Right-wing Populism

This Forum Debate explores the confluence of neoliberal, populist, conservative and reactionary influences on contemporary ideologies and practices of social policy, with a focus on the poorer peripheries of global

The Ambivalence of Power in the Twenty-First Century Economy

The Ambivalence of Power in the Twenty-First Century Economy contributes to the understanding of the ambivalent nature of power, oscillating between conflict and cooperation, public and private, global and local, formal and informal, and does so from an empirical perspective. It offers a collection of country-based cases, as well as critically assesses the existing conceptions of power from a cross-disciplinary perspective. The diverse analyses of power at the macro, meso or micro levels allow the volume to highlight the complexity of political economy in the twenty-first century. Each chapter addresses key elements of that political economy (from the ambivalence of the cases of former communist countries that do not conform with the grand narratives about democracy and markets, to the dual utility of new technologies such as face-recognition), thus providing mounting evidence for the centrality of an understanding of ambivalence in the analysis of power, especially in the modern state power-driven capitalism. Anchored in economic sociology and political economy, this volume aims to make ‘visible’ the dimensions of power embedded in economic practices. The chapters are predominantly based on post-communist practices, but this divergent experience is relevant to comparative studies of how power and economy are interrelated

The Ambivalence of Power in the Twenty-First Century Economy

The Ambivalence of Power in the Twenty-First Century Economy contributes to the understanding of the ambivalent nature of power, oscillating between conflict and cooperation, public and private, global and local, formal and informal, and does so from an empirical perspective. It offers a collection of country-based cases, as well as critically assesses the existing conceptions of power from a cross-disciplinary perspective. The diverse analyses of power at the macro, meso or micro levels allow the volume to highlight the complexity of political economy in the twenty-first century. Each chapter addresses key elements of that political economy (from the ambivalence of the cases of former communist countries that do not conform with the grand narratives about democracy and markets, to the dual utility of new technologies such as face-recognition), thus providing mounting evidence for the centrality of an understanding of ambivalence in the analysis of power, especially in the modern state power-driven capitalism. Anchored in economic sociology and political economy, this volume aims to make ‘visible’ the dimensions of power embedded in economic practices. The chapters are predominantly based on post-communist practices, but this divergent experience is relevant to comparative studies of how power and economy are interrelated

Gender, wealth, and participation in community groups in Meru Central District, Kenya:

"TA mixed-methods, multiple-stage approach was used to obtain data on how gender and wealth affected participation in community groups in Meru, Kenya, and how men and women farmers obtain and diffuse agricultural information. Research techniques included participant observation, documentary analysis, semi-structured interviews, social mapping, group timelines, and structured questionnaires. Dairy-goat farmer groups were interviewed for the study. Qualitative data provided baseline information, and helped in the formulation of research questions. Quantitative data were analyzed using contingency tables, descriptive statistics, correlations, tests of significance, and regression. Factors that affected participation in different types of groups included household composition, age, and gender. Women made up 59 percent of the dairy-goat group (DGG) members, with the DGG project encouraging women's participation. Women made up 76 percent of DGG treasurer positions; 43 percent of secretary positions, and 30 percent of chairperson positions. Gender also influenced participation in clan groups, water groups, and merry-go-round (savings and loans) groups. Wealth did not appear to have a significant effect on participation in community groups. Extension was the most important information source for both men and women farmers. However, church and indigenous knowledge (passed on from parents) seemed more important to women. Both men and women mentioned other farmers, groups, and “baraza” (public meetings used to make announcements and diffuse information) as important information sources, but they rated them at different levels of importance. Men were diffusing information to greater numbers of people than women, although men and women diffused to similar sources. This study shows that because men and women traditionally participate in different types of groups and receive agricultural information from different sources, development agencies must target different types of groups and institutions to reach men, women, or poor farmers. Mechanisms should be developed to include women, the poor, and other targeted groups in community associations that provide market and other income-earning opportunities.." Author's AbstractGender, Collective action,

The Limits of “Populism”: How Malaysia Misses the Mark and Why That Matters

Politics in Malaysia seems ripe for a populist upsurge. Parties assume fairly exclusive, ethnic boundaries, inviting insider–outsider pandering. Personalities loom large. Economic inequality is among the highest in the region. Regardless, the extent to which Malaysian politics might be understood as “populist” rather than merely polarised, illiberal, and prone to particularism is dubious. I argue that Malaysian politics is neither populist nor likely to veer that way. However, the case offers a useful test of the boundaries between populism and personalisation of politics, the extent to which appeals designed to maximise popular support suffice to code a polity as populist, and which specific illiberal features facilitate or preclude populism. This examination thus clarifies a messy concept by exploring how populism might develop or falter in a multi-party, parliamentary, and hybrid rather than democratic regime – suggesting the relative reach of institutional rather than personalistic or zeitgeist-related explanations

The role of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) media in patient empowerment: a "uses and gratifications" perspective

Empowerment has been studied extensively in the field of psychology for more than three decades. Extant research in the area of empowerment is often at the employee level in an employee-employer relationship or at the team level in an organizational setting. However, research that examines the role of Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) media in consumer empowerment in the healthcare context has been neglected in the Information Systems (IS) literature. This dissertation uses three studies to address this gap in IS literature. In Study 1, an interpretive approach using a qualitative methodology was used to understand patients' motivations and barriers for health information seeking and/or sharing online. Results from the interviews showed that there are seven major motivations and barriers dimensions namely media-enabled health information seeking, health output quality produced by media, media-enabled health-related content management and communication, media-enabled convenience, media-enabled health information sharing, and media-enabled health problem solving and decision-making. In Study 2, a positivist approach using a survey methodology was used to test a research model linking the motivations and barriers dimensions identified in Study 1 to CMC media use and patient empowerment. The Uses and Gratifications theory was used to categorize the seven motivations and barriers dimensions identified in Study 1 into the three gratifications, namely, content gratifications, process gratifications, and social gratifications. Results from a national survey of 230 patients showed that content gratifications and social gratifications are positively related to CMC media use for health information seeking and/or sharing online, and that CMC media use for health information seeking and/or sharing online is positively related to patient empowerment. In Study 3, a survey methodology was used to examine the consequences of CMC media-enabled patient empowerment. Survey results showed that patient empowerment positively impacts quality of care, patient coping with illness, and patient confidence in treatment, and that quality of care mediates the relationship between patient empowerment and patient satisfaction. Together, the three studies help understand the role CMC media play in empowering healthcare consumers thereby addressing calls from IS researchers to focus on the consumer-perspective on the use of health information technologies (HIT)

Public relations and the rise of hypermodern values: Exploring the profession in Europe

© 2018 This article raises the question of whether European public relations (PR) and communications professionals perceive a cultural transformation in the direction of hypermodernity, and if so, attempts to assess how this influences their organizations and their work. Questions were asked in the European Communication Monitor 2017, an annual survey among communications professionals, and 3387 respondents from 50 European countries filled in the questionnaire. The results indicate that European professionals recognize a cultural transformation in the direction of hyper consumption, hyper modernization and hyper narcissism that influences the communication between their organizations and their stakeholders. A cluster analysis shows that less than half of the respondents perceive a transformation of their organization in the direction of hypermodern characteristics and values. Organizations with post/hypermodern characteristics have superior communications departments compared to modern organizations. Post/hypermodern organizations and excellent communications departments also engage more often in societal debates than other types of organizations and departments