Minding the Gap: Computing Ethics and the Political Economy of Big Tech

In 1988 Michael Mahoney wrote that “[w]hat is truly revolutionary about the computer will become clear only when computing acquires a proper history, one that ties it to other technologies and thus uncovers the precedents that make its innovations significant” (Mahoney, 1988). Today, over thirty years after this quote was written, we are living right in the middle of the information age and computing technology is constantly transforming modern living in revolutionary ways and in such a high degree that is giving rise to many ethical considerations, dilemmas, and social disruption. To explore the myriad of issues associated with the ethical challenges of computers using the lens of political economy it is important to explore the history and development of computer technology

Public Policy and Governance: Some Thoughts on Its Elements

As the word demos denotes, the democracy is generally considered as the rule or governance based on the general base of people in which monarchy or oligarchy form is excluded. We have a classical view about the four forms of government, which was proposed by Platonic concepts. Most idealistic form of government, in his prongs, could be found in Crete and Sparta, which was nevertheless not a democratic form. His accolade of these two nations, which, of course, would be a kind of God’s product so to be most benevolent, humanly appealing, efficient and philanthropic. This means the democratic form of government is not best, but most favored alternative to police the society. The political terms, henceforth, would supervene the concept of democracy, and, for many reasons and on historical wake, democracy is generally accepted as practically most desired form of rule or governance. While some modern scholar revealed, a mini-republic can be a niche to contest the merits of various forms of governance. We can gauge a scope of elements we value through the governance process, human intrinsic, efficiency, equality, welfare and even individual happiness. As the time is a small city community, called a polis, in Plato and Socrates, a mini republic can be well envisaged in understanding the Platonic Republic. In that case, most benevolent ruler may be superior to any other form of governance, which can be a philosopher’s Republic. The ideal ruler would behave and govern with mighty intelligence and concomitant power to rule. It is idealistic to produce maximum happiness of polis constituents. The worst contras, however, a tyranny, comes that the constituents legitimately expel their ruler by a collective vote. This extreme contrast and the way of process also could be ascertained in the ancient form of oriental monarchy. The dynasty could be legitimately revoked to restore new heritage of emperor or Kings where a kind of rebellion, as elucidated by Locke, is well justified in the name of heaven’s command. Given the size of polis or governed territory, there are separate ways to redress the evils of tyranny while the Oriental culture has not recognized the kind of formal vote methods. Any means to expel the tyranny could be embraced to rebel. For our purpose of grasp through this working paper, I would theorize on the traditional elements of public policy and democratic form of government

Beyond 'Interfering Greenies' and 'Intransigent Farmers': The Contested Place of Tenure Review in New Zealand's High Country.

The landscapes spanning north to south along the hinterland and mountains of New Zealand’s South Island are a fast evolving focus of national contestation over their use, aesthetics and value. This region known as the ‘high country’ provides an interesting backdrop to my research into the dynamics of protecting ecological values alongside a socially and politically powerful agriculture. Neoliberalism, as an objective of political-economic restructuring since 1984, has significantly impacted on how the high country is conceptualised spatially. Instigated in 1989, the policy of tenure review is an on-going process. It has entailed converting the generally large Crown perpetual pastoral leases (originally totalling 303 properties) on a voluntary basis, to privatised freehold held by the original lessees in exchange for the return of land holding Significant Inherent Values, foreseen to require extrinsic protection, and public access values, to Department of Conservation control and management. The process has operated to alienate vast areas of leasehold from crown management control, which in some regions and on some landholdings has facilitated landscape transformation and different productive models. The thesis discusses the orthodoxy central to tenure review, which sought to separate the protection of ecological values and public access from productive use. In particular, the study foregrounds thinking in contemporary, constructionist geographies and social theory acutely aware of the issues stemming from Western environmentalisms that rely on the resilient duality erected between nature and society. Such logic systems conceive of ‘nature’ contained within one sphere, and the economy, society and politics in another and subsequently seek isolation between the two. However, this fails to understand or make room for complex interactions and linkages between nature and society within ever increasingly ‘hybrid’ landscapes. Emphasising Bourdieu’s methodological principles, a locally grounded research approach was employed to understand how ‘the landscape’ is socially constructed and valued within a defined geographical region. Three basins within the mid-Canterbury high country were selected as the case study region for research. A rich sample of ethnographic data regarding values, inter-subjective experiences, attitudes towards tenure review and changing productive and protective habitus was explored by interviewing 84 participants from farming and conservation groupings involved within the region. Early in analysis it became clear that negotiation of values and knowledge claims was occurring locally between actor groups. However, at a macro-level, tenure review, as a politically contested and difficult process of separation is transforming at least two sets of processes: 1) relationships with nature and the landscape, which has previously been held as a relatively integrated pastoral system; 2) dividing between production and protection interests is modifying the habitus of practice and relationships between ‘productivist’ and ‘protectionist’ interests. In this thesis I argue that both processes are complex but tenure review has operated in a way that further alienates powerful productivist and protectionist orders within the current constitution of New Zealand society. What analysis highlighted is that division with tenure review categorises separated spaces as either 'for production' or 'for protection', leading to narrowed habitus that may undermine the potential to look towards or maintain more sensitive forms of production. An impasse arises, where ‘locking away’ purified nature in externalised parks and reserves may negate social responsibility for ‘other’ natures, especially those produced from and more obviously ‘human impacted’. Concluding the thesis, the important argument gained from concepts of hybridity and multi-naturalism, is that removing humans and production from ‘nature’, will not necessarily ‘save’ or restore pre-human nature, as is politically mobilised in some conservation discourse. But removing humans will transform and direct nature in a different, human influenced trajectory of change (Braun, 2006b). This is because humans are intricately tied with biophysical nature in complex material, social-semiotic and political ways. As Harvey (1996: 186) asserts, removing humans from nature would be “disastrous for all species and all forms [of life] that have become dependent on it”. Hence, by acknowledging how all global natures are hybrid in form postmodern eco-politics becomes about navigating diverse trajectories of social-spatial change. Interrogating tensions between productivist and protectionist objectives, as dominant interests within high country space, is therefore important for promoting socially justified and supported conservation outcomes

An investigation of the use of social media news releases to create dialogue around brands

This study aimed to provide South African public relations professionals with insights into the use of the Social Media News Release (SMNR) as a PR 2.0 tool that has the potential to elicit consumer-driven dialogue in social media channels about information, a brand, product or service advocated by the particular social media news release. Drawing on literature from fields such as public relations, new media studies, marketing, and consumer studies, an analysis of two South African SMNR case studies was conducted including the Samsung Omnia i900 SMNR and the Standard Bank Pro20 2008 and 2009 SMNRs. An in-depth content analysis applying limited designations analysis and detailed assertions analysis techniques was performed on selected content from the dedicated social media platforms linked to in the SMNRs to determine the origins, tone and thematic nature of communications on the platforms. A total of 2071 messages was analysed by means of content analysis across six social media platforms in the two case studies. In order to triangulate and support data, an online survey was conducted with 43 social media users as respondents in order to determine social media users’ interactions with the social media platforms and SMNRs. The study found that the social media platforms linked to the SMNRs in the two case studies largely successfully elicited and hosted social media user-generated conversations about the themes advocated by the SMNR. The Blog, Facebook and YouTube platforms proved to be most successful in generating social media conversation, while the Flickr, Twitter and Delicious platforms were less effective among South African consumers. It was found that social media news releases are likely to elicit consumer-driven dialogue on the dedicated social media platforms linked to by the SMNRs if the platforms are managed correctly. Factors that were identified as important management considerations include ensuring the relevancy and timeliness of content on the social media platforms, the involvement by the platform creator in stimulating and encouraging participation from social media users where necessary, as well as the swift response to user comments, deleting of spam comments and pro-active management of negative perceptions that may arise from user comments on the platforms