Challenges and perspectives of hate speech research

This book is the result of a conference that could not take place. It is a collection of 26 texts that address and discuss the latest developments in international hate speech research from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives. This includes case studies from Brazil, Lebanon, Poland, Nigeria, and India, theoretical introductions to the concepts of hate speech, dangerous speech, incivility, toxicity, extreme speech, and dark participation, as well as reflections on methodological challenges such as scraping, annotation, datafication, implicity, explainability, and machine learning. As such, it provides a much-needed forum for cross-national and cross-disciplinary conversations in what is currently a very vibrant field of research

Bending Opinion

With communication playing an increasingly important role in contemporary society, rhetoric appears to have gained in influence and importance. The ancients knew all along: power belongs to those who know how to use their words. Nowadays, we know that rhetoric pervades all discourse. There is no communication without rhetoric. In a society with ever-increasing amounts of information, and with media whose significance cannot be overestimated, we need to know all the mechanisms playing a role in the gathering, making and reporting of information and opinions, and its processing by an audience. Rhetoric is, from both a practical and a theoretical perspective, essential to the conduct, analysis and evaluation of public debates. After all, the idea of democracy is closely intertwined with the ideal of transparent decision-making on the basis of open, informed discussions in the public domain, in political, organizational and journalistic discourse. Bending Opinion cites a host of relevant examples, from Barack Obama to Geert Wilders, as well as compelling case studies

Modelling choice in digital writing: functional revisions and 'texture'

In this thesis, the digital writing practices of two 2nd year undergraduates are examined in terms of the functions and structures of their revision activity. Using systemic functional linguistics as an underlying framework, the project takes a first step toward to a dynamic description of written text in functional terms. To date, research into dynamic descriptions of language (i.e. the logogenesis, or unfolding of meaning in a text) has been almost entirely based upon data related to the spoken mode. Furthermore, research into revision activity has tended to ignore the functionality or meaning inherent in such revisions. The existing research has, instead, primarily focused on cognitive processes (for e.g., pause times) or which language structures, such as parts of speech, are more frequently involved in revisions that others. Ultimately, this thesis works toward providing a dynamic description of the language functions and revisions involved in revision activity in two student writers. To do this, it makes use of software called keystroke logging to record how two writers compose four academic essays on their computers. Such technology allows us to model the unfolding of a written text in much the same way as a tape recording allows researchers to model the unfolding of a speech. By examining how these writers revise text in light of academic expectations (a 'valued' configuration of field, tenor, and mode register variables present in language choices) and digital mediation (computer afforded composing practices), the thesis shows how certain language functions and structures may play a key role when it comes to shaping an academic essay. In this light, this thesis takes a first step to providing a dynamic description of what is usually analysed solely in synoptic terms, by showing how we can analyse written text as process (an evolving entity) rather than just a product (a static entity). Because of this, a new model of analysis – a combination of keystroke data and functional systemics – is proposed, which can provide an additional perspective to the already existing methods of examining writer behaviour by looking at meaning making practices in revision activity

Drug Policies and Development

The 12th volume of International Development Policy explores the relationship between international drug policy and development goals, both current and within a historical per-spective. Contributions address the drugs and development nexus from a range of critical viewpoints, highlighting gaps and contradictions, as well as exploring strategies and oppor-tunities for enhanced linkages between drug control and development programming. Crim-inalisation and coercive law enforcement-based responses in international and national level drug control are shown to undermine peace, security and development objectives. Readership: Academic scholars and researchers, policymakers and development practitioners interested in international development policy, drug policies and their effects on development, global economic and political trends, and local development issues

International Handbook of Practical Theology

A practical theology, that wants to face the complexity, plurality and differentiation of situations and contexts of religious practices from a global point of view, needs to refer to the discourses that shape them. The contributions can be divided into the sections ‘concepts of religion’, ‘religious practices’, and ‘discourses’, their aim is to identify the respective religious-cultural context and the related framework of interpretation