E-Democracy and the European Public Sphere

The chapter starts with an outline of outstanding recent contributions to the discussion of the EU democratic deficit and the so-called “no demos” problem and the debate about European citizenship and European identity—mainly in the light of insights from the EU crisis. This is followed by reflections on the recent discussion on the state of the mass media-based European public sphere. Finally, the author discusses the state of research on the Internet’s capacity to support the emergence of a (renewed) public sphere, with a focus on options for political actors to use the Internet for communication and campaigning, on the related establishment of segmented issue-related publics as well as on social media and its two-faced character as an enabler as well as a distorting factor of the public sphere. The author is sceptic about the capacities of Internet-based political communication to develop into a supranational (European) public sphere. It rather establishes a network of a multitude of discursive processes aimed at opinion formation at various levels and on various issues. The potential of online communication to increase the responsiveness of political institutions so far is set into practice insufficiently. Online media are increasingly used in a vertical and scarcely in a horizontal or interactive manner of communication

The Network Concept of Creativity and Deep Thinking: Applications to Social Opinion Formation and Talent Support

Network support is a key success factor for talented people. As an example, the Hungarian Talent Support Network involves close to 1500 Talent Points and more than 200,000 people. This network started the Hungarian Templeton Program identifying and helping 315 exceptional cognitive talents. This network is a part of the European Talent Support Network initiated by the European Council for High Ability involving more than 300 organizations in over 30 countries in Europe and extending in other continents. These networks are giving good examples that talented people often occupy a central, but highly dynamic position in social networks. The involvement of such 'creative nodes' in network-related decision making processes is vital, especially in novel environmental challenges. Such adaptive/learning responses characterize a large variety of complex systems from proteins, through brains to society. It is crucial for talent support programs to use these networking and learning processes to increase their efficiency further

Estado educador: uma nova pedagogia da hegemonia nas Reservas Extrativistas

http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1414-49802012000100005 Este artigo analisa o papel desempenhado por um projeto de cooperação internacional (Projeto Resex) na implementação das Reservas Extrativistas na década de 1990. Através da análise dos documentos e relatórios referentes à negociação e execução da primeira fase do Projeto, no período de 1995-1999, demonstra-se a contraposição dos princípios contidos nos sujeitos coletivos que originaram as Reservas Extrativistas e aqueles produzidos, transmitidos e difundidos através do Projeto Resex. Discute-se a presença do Estado, em uma pedagogia da hegemonia, operando na desconstrução das conquistas objetivadas pelos seringueiros nas décadas de 1970-1980, e utilizando, para isso, o Projeto Resex como um espaço pedagógico privilegiado