Deliberation, Representation, Equity

"What can we learn about the development of public interaction in e-democracy from a drama delivered by mobile headphones to an audience standing around a shopping center in a Stockholm suburb? In democratic societies there is widespread acknowledgment of the need to incorporate citizens’ input in decision-making processes in more or less structured ways. But participatory decision making is balancing on the borders of inclusion, structure, precision and accuracy. To simply enable more participation will not yield enhanced democracy, and there is a clear need for more elaborated elicitation and decision analytical tools. This rigorous and thought-provoking volume draws on a stimulating variety of international case studies, from flood risk management in the Red River Delta of Vietnam, to the consideration of alternatives to gold mining in Roșia Montană in Transylvania, to the application of multi-criteria decision analysis in evaluating the impact of e-learning opportunities at Uganda's Makerere University. Editors Love Ekenberg (senior research scholar, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis [IIASA], Laxenburg, professor of Computer and Systems Sciences, Stockholm University), Karin Hansson (artist and research fellow, Department of Computer and Systems Sciences, Stockholm University), Mats Danielson (vice president and professor of Computer and Systems Sciences, Stockholm University, affiliate researcher, IIASA) and Göran Cars (professor of Societal Planning and Environment, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm) draw innovative collaborations between mathematics, social science, and the arts. They develop new problem formulations and solutions, with the aim of carrying decisions from agenda setting and problem awareness through to feasible courses of action by setting objectives, alternative generation, consequence assessments, and trade-off clarifications. As a result, this book is important new reading for decision makers in government, public administration and urban planning, as well as students and researchers in the fields of participatory democracy, urban planning, social policy, communication design, participatory art, decision theory, risk analysis and computer and systems sciences.

Deliberation, Representation, Equity

"What can we learn about the development of public interaction in e-democracy from a drama delivered by mobile headphones to an audience standing around a shopping center in a Stockholm suburb? In democratic societies there is widespread acknowledgment of the need to incorporate citizens’ input in decision-making processes in more or less structured ways. But participatory decision making is balancing on the borders of inclusion, structure, precision and accuracy. To simply enable more participation will not yield enhanced democracy, and there is a clear need for more elaborated elicitation and decision analytical tools. This rigorous and thought-provoking volume draws on a stimulating variety of international case studies, from flood risk management in the Red River Delta of Vietnam, to the consideration of alternatives to gold mining in Roșia Montană in Transylvania, to the application of multi-criteria decision analysis in evaluating the impact of e-learning opportunities at Uganda's Makerere University. Editors Love Ekenberg (senior research scholar, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis [IIASA], Laxenburg, professor of Computer and Systems Sciences, Stockholm University), Karin Hansson (artist and research fellow, Department of Computer and Systems Sciences, Stockholm University), Mats Danielson (vice president and professor of Computer and Systems Sciences, Stockholm University, affiliate researcher, IIASA) and Göran Cars (professor of Societal Planning and Environment, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm) draw innovative collaborations between mathematics, social science, and the arts. They develop new problem formulations and solutions, with the aim of carrying decisions from agenda setting and problem awareness through to feasible courses of action by setting objectives, alternative generation, consequence assessments, and trade-off clarifications. As a result, this book is important new reading for decision makers in government, public administration and urban planning, as well as students and researchers in the fields of participatory democracy, urban planning, social policy, communication design, participatory art, decision theory, risk analysis and computer and systems sciences.

“Once Bitten, Twice Shy”. EU’s Fiscal Compact in Romanian Readers’ Comments on Adevãrul and Evenimentul Zilei

The paper proposes a new empirical approach in the study of Europeanized public spheres, by applying political claims analysis and frames analysis to readers’ comments about the Fiscal Compact and comparing them to claims in the media articles. The research draws a broad picture of how Romanian citizens interpreted the actions and decisions of political actors, what positions they chose to adopt in regard to the issue and why. Results show that readers’ attitudes regarding the fiscal treaty are influenced by their political party affinities or oppositions and that the extent of Europeanization of a newspaper determines the degree of Europeanized claim-making in readers’ comments. The paper questions citizens’ participation in the public sphere, characterized by mediated interactions and high degrees of contestation. The EU Fiscal Compact has generated an issue-specific agonistic public sphere which, to a certain extent, involves online news media consumers, who do not resume at replicating the political debate between European leaders, but also add their own interpretations to it. Besides monitoring and discussing political decisions, readers of Adevărul and Evenimentul Zilei also address claims to the political class, asking for information and for citizens’ participation in the decision-making regarding the treaty. However, the overall level of Europeanization of readers’ debate is quite low

Teoria, metodologia i kontekst czterech studiów przypadku

This article presents a common introduction to the four case studies published in this volume. It explains some broader aspects of the methodology used in the four-country case studies and the underlying theory. It is based on the belief that research should be contextualised and founded on in-depth theoretical and empirical knowledge. This contribution explains the methodology used, the sample selection criteria, and the conceptualisation of the alternative media and justifies the focus of research and its importance, especially from a long-term perspective. Furthermore, the study puts the country case studies within a broader comparative international and political communication context, particularly social media. Moreover, there is an explanation of the importance and use of the “like” button on Facebook.Artykuł przedstawia wprowadzenie do czterech studiów przypadku opublikowanych w tym tomie. Wyjaśnia szersze aspekty metodologii stosowanej w studiach przypadków czterech państw i leżącej u ich podstaw teorii. Opiera się na przekonaniu, że badania powinny być kontekstualizowane i oparte na dogłębnej wiedzy teoretycznej i empirycznej. Niniejszy wkład wyjaśnia zastosowaną metodologię, kryteria doboru próby oraz konceptualizację alternatywnych mediów oraz uzasadnia ukierunkowanie badań i ich znaczenie, zwłaszcza w perspektywie długoterminowej. Ponadto badanie umieszcza studia przypadków wybranych państw w szerszym porównawczym kontekście komunikacji międzynarodowej i politycznej, w szczególności w mediach społecznościowych. Ponadto wyjaśnia znaczenia i użycia przycisku „Lubię to” na Facebooku

A MCDM Analysis of the Roşia Montană Gold Mining Project

The need and estimated utility for a structured analysis of the Roşia Montană gold exploitation project have been palpable in the Romanian public sphere during the last 15 years and there is a vast amount of conflicting information and opinions on the benefits and risks involved. This article provides a comprehensive decision analysis of the Roşia Montană project. Over 100 documents from the past years have been gathered regarding the Roşia Montană mining project, which cover the main official, formal and less formal documents covering the case and produced by a wide range of stakeholders. These were then analyzed while designing a multi-criteria tree including the relevant perspectives under which the most commonly discussed four alternatives were analyzed. The result of this can be translated into a valuable recommendation for the mining company and for the political decision-makers. If these stakeholders want the continuation of the project and its acceptance by civil society, the key challenge is to increase the transparency of the process and improve the credibility and legal aspects; if these aspects cannot be met, the decision-makers need to pay attention to the alternatives available for a sustainable development in the area