POLITICAL ECONOMY CONFERENCE

Previously Published Papers on "Political Economy Conference"

• The Mediating Role of Level of Education and Income on the Relationship between Political Ideology and Attitude towards Immigration

  Authors: Zohreh Bang Tavakoli, Shuktika Chatterjee, Keywords: Conservative, immigration, liberal, political ideology. DOI:10.5281/zenodo. Abstract: This study is investigating the impact of ideological structures in terms of conservative and liberal on shaping immigration acceptance attitudes under the contribution of socio-economic status. According to motivated reasoning theory, political ideology is identified as a recurrent impact on the formation of attitude, while conservatives tend to express more hostility toward immigrants in comparison to liberals which are proposed to be more tolerant towards immigrants. Our finding suggests that political ideology will structure individual attitudes when citizens socio-economic vulnerability and level of education are low enough to consider immigrants as a threat. Therefore, economic vulnerability is proposed to weaken the ideological predispositions’ resistance. There has been some threats and factors such as level of education and economic condition proposed by group competition theory and labor market competition theory as fundamental factors which can strengthen or weaken the effects of political ideology on individuals’ attitudes towards immigration; those mechanisms for liberals and conservatives will be operated differently.

• Social Influences on Americans' Mask-Wearing Behavior during COVID-19

  Authors: Ruoya Huang, Ruoxian Huang, Edgar Huang, Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic, ethnicity, mask-wearing, policymaking implications, political affiliations, religious beliefs, United States. DOI:10.5281/zenodo. Abstract: Based on a convenience sample of 2,092 participants from across all 50 states of the United States, a survey was conducted to explore Americans’ mask-wearing behaviors during COVID-19 according to their political convictions, religious beliefs, and ethnic cultures from late July to early September, 2020. The purpose of the study is to provide evidential support for government policymaking so as to drive up more effective public policies by taking into consideration the variance in these social factors. It was found that the respondents’ party affiliation or preference, religious belief, and ethnicity, in addition to their health condition, gender, level of concern of contracting COVID-19, all affected their mask-wearing habits both in March, the initial coronavirus outbreak stage, and in August, when mask-wearing had been made mandatory by state governments. The study concludes that pandemic awareness campaigns must be run among all citizens, especially among African Americans, Muslims, and Republicans, who have the lowest rates of wearing masks, in order to protect themselves and others. It is recommended that complementary cognitive bias awareness programs should be implemented in non-Black and non-Muslim communities to eliminate social concerns that deter them from wearing masks.

• Analyzing the Potential of Job Creation by Taking the First Step Towards Circular Economy: Case Study of Brazil

  Authors: R. Conde, Keywords: Circular economy, green recovery, job creation, social gains. DOI:10.5281/zenodo. Abstract: The Brazilian economic projections and social indicators show a future of crisis for the country. Solutions to avoid this crisis scenario are necessary. Several developed countries implement initiatives linked to sustainability, mainly related to the circular economy, to solve their crises quickly - green recovery. This article aims to assess social gains if Brazil followed the same recovery strategy. Furthermore, with the use of data presented and recognized in the international academic society, the number of jobs that can be created, if Brazil took the first steps towards a more circular economy, was found. Moreover, in addition to the gross value in the number of jobs created, this article also detailed the number of these jobs by type of activity (collection, processing, and manufacturing) and by type of material.

• Private Law, Public Justice: Another Look at Imprisonment for Debt under the Jordanian Law

  Authors: Haitham A. Haloush, Keywords: The Jordanian Civil Code, the Jordanian Execution Law, imprisonment for debt, good faith, the Jordanian Constitution, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. DOI:10.5281/zenodo. Abstract: Debtors' imprisonment in Jordan is a problematic issue since it impinges upon required financial guarantees that are presumably offered by debtors on the one hand, and infringes flagrantly the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on the other hand. Jordan lacks regulatory provisions in this respect and debtors' imprisonment is indirectly exercised in Jordan without giving a special legal attention to this concern. From this perspective, this research reviews the available regulations, standard laws and codes of conduct that might guide the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in the Jordanian context. Furthermore, this article will examine the suitability of the Jordanian legal system in providing sufficient protection for debtors. The author argues that there are serious obstacles in this aspect.

• A Research on Determining the Viability of a Job Board Website for Refugees in Kenya

  Authors: Prince Mugoya, Collins Oduor Ondiek, Patrick Kanyi Wamuyu, Keywords: Information technology, refugee, skills, utilization, economy, jobs. DOI:10.5281/zenodo. Abstract: Refugee Job Board Website is a web-based application that provides a platform for organizations to post jobs specifically for refugees. Organizations upload job opportunities and refugees can view them on the website. The website also allows refugees to input their skills and qualifications. The methodology used to develop this system is a waterfall (traditional) methodology. Software development tools include Brackets which will be used to code the website and PhpMyAdmin to store all the data in a database.

• The Flashnews as a Commercial Session of Political Marketing: The Content Analysis of the Embedded Political Narratives in Non-Political Media Products

  Authors: Zsolt Szabolcsi, Keywords: Flashnews, political communication, political marketing, news management. DOI:10.5281/zenodo. Abstract: Political communication in Hungary has undergone a significant change in the 2010s. One element of the transformation is the Flashnews. This media product was launched in March 2015 and since then 40-50 blocks are broadcasted, daily, on 5 channels. Flashnews blocks are condensed news sessions, containing the summary of political narratives. It starts with the introduction of the narrator, then, usually four news topics are presented and, finally, the narrator concludes the block. The block lasts only one minute and, therefore, it provides a blink session into the main narratives of political communication at the time. Beyond its rapid pace, what makes its avoidance difficult is that these blocks are always in the first position in the commercial break of a non-political media product. Although it is only one minute long, its significance is high. The content of the Flashnews reflects the main governmental narratives and, therefore, the Flashnews is part of the agenda-setting capacity of political communication. It reaches media consumers who have limited knowledge and interest in politics, and their use of media products is not politically related. For this audience, the Flashnews pops up in the same way as commercials. Due to its structure and appearance, the impact of Flashnews seems to be similar to commercials, imbedded into the break of media products. It activates existing knowledge constructs, builds up associational links and maintains their presence in a way that the recipient is not aware of the phenomenon. The research aims to examine the extent to which the Flashnews and the main news narratives are identical in their content. This aim is realized with the content analysis of the two news products by examining the Flashnews and the evening news during main sport events from 2016 to 2018. The initial hypothesis of the research is that Flashnews is a contribution to the news management technique for an effective articulation of political narratives in public service media channels.

• Exploring Dynamics of Regional Creative Economy

  Authors: Ari Lindeman, Melina Maunula, Jani Kiviranta, Ronja Pölkki, Keywords: Business, cooperation, creative economy, regional development, vision. DOI:10.5281/zenodo. Abstract: The aim of this paper is to build a vision of the utilization of creative industry competences in industrial and services firms connected to Kymenlaakso region, Finland, smart specialization focus areas. Research indicates that creativity and the use of creative industry’s inputs can enhance innovation and competitiveness. Currently creative methods and services are underutilized in regional businesses and the added value they provide is not well grasped. Methodologically, the research adopts a qualitative exploratory approach. Data is collected in multiple ways including a survey, focus groups, and interviews. Theoretically, the paper contributes to the discussion about the use creative industry competences in regional development, and argues for building regional creative economy ecosystems in close co-operation with regional strategies and traditional industries rather than as treating regional creative industry ecosystem initiatives separate from them. The practical contribution of the paper is the creative vision for the use of regional authorities in updating smart specialization strategy as well as boosting industrial and creative & cultural sectors’ competitiveness. The paper also illustrates a research-based model of vision building.

• Mapping the Digital Landscape: An Analysis of Party Differences between Conventional and Digital Policy Positions

  Authors: Daniel Schwarz, Jan Fivaz, Alessia Neuroni, Keywords: Comparison of political issue dimensions, digital awareness of candidates, digital policy space, party positions on digital issues. DOI:10.5281/zenodo. Abstract: Although digitization is a buzzword in almost every election campaign, the political parties leave voters largely in the dark about their specific positions on digital issues. In the run-up to the 2019 elections in Switzerland, the ‘Digitization Monitor’ project (DMP) was launched in order to change this situation. Within the framework of the DMP, all 4,736 candidates were surveyed about their digital policy positions and values. The DMP is designed as a digital policy supplement to the existing ‘smartvote’ voting advice application. This enabled a direct comparison of the digital policy attitudes according to the DMP with the topics of the ‘smartvote’ questionnaire which are comprehensive in content but mainly related to conventional policy areas. This paper’s main research goal is to analyze and visualize possible differences between conventional and digital policy areas in terms of response patterns between and within political parties. The analysis is based on dimensionality reduction methods (multidimensional scaling and principal component analysis) for the visualization of inter-party differences, and on standard deviation as a measure of variation for the evaluation of intra-party unity. The results reveal that digital issues show a lower degree of inter-party polarization compared to conventional policy areas. Thus, the parties have more common ground in issues on digitization than in conventional policy areas. In contrast, the study reveals a mixed picture regarding intra-party unity. Homogeneous parties show a lower degree of unity in digitization issues whereas parties with heterogeneous positions in conventional areas have more united positions in digital areas. All things considered, the findings are encouraging as less polarized conditions apply to the debate on digital development compared to conventional politics. For the future, it would be desirable if in further countries similar projects to the DMP could emerge to broaden the basis for conclusions.

• Gender Justice and Feminist Self-Management Practices in the Solidarity Economy: A Quantitative Analysis of the Factors that Impact Enterprises Formed by Women in Brazil

  Authors: Maria de Nazaré Moraes Soares, Silvia Maria Dias Pedro Rebouças, José Carlos Lázaro, Keywords: Feminist management practices, gender justice, self-management, solidarity economy. DOI:10.5281/zenodo. Abstract: The Solidarity Economy (SE) acts in the re-articulation of the economic field to the other spheres of social action. The significant participation of women in SE resulted in the formation of a national network of self-managed enterprises in Brazil: The Solidarity and Feminist Economy Network (SFEN). The objective of the research is to identify factors of gender justice and feminist self-management practices that adhere to the reality of women in SE enterprises. The conceptual apparatus related to feminist studies in this research covers Nancy Fraser approaches on gender justice, and Patricia Yancey Martin approaches on feminist management practices, and authors of postcolonial feminism such as Mohanty and Maria Lugones, who lead the discussion to peripheral contexts, a necessary perspective when observing the women’s movement in SE. The research has a quantitative nature in the phases of data collection and analysis. The data collection was performed through two data sources: the database mapped in Brazil in 2010-2013 by the National Information System in Solidary Economy and 150 questionnaires with women from 16 enterprises in SFEN, in a state of Brazilian northeast. The data were analyzed using the multivariate statistical technique of Factor Analysis. The results show that the factors that define gender justice and feminist self-management practices in SE are interrelated in several levels, proving statistically the intersectional condition of the issue of women. The evidence from the quantitative analysis allowed us to understand the dimensions of gender justice and feminist management practices intersectionality; in this sense, the non-distribution of domestic work interferes in non-representation of women in public spaces, especially in peripheral contexts. The study contributes with important reflections to the studies of this area and can be complemented in the future with a qualitative research that approaches the perspective of women in the context of the SE self-management paradigm.

• The Political Economy of Police Corruption in Nigeria

  Authors: Tosin Osasona, Keywords: Funding, policing, Nigeria Police Force, corruption. DOI:10.5281/zenodo. Abstract: The Nigeria Police Force bears the constitutional mandate as the primary policing agency for the protection of life and property within Nigeria; however, the police have an historical ill-reputation for corruption, ineptitude and impunity. Using the institutional theory of police as the framework of analysis, the paper argues that the performance of the police in Nigeria mirrors the dominant political, social and economic institutions and the structural environment of the Nigerian state. The article puts in perspective the deliberate political decision to underfund the police, leaving officers of the force the extra task of foraging for funds to undertake the duty that the Nigeria state primarily exists for; the article further explores the nexus between corruption in the police in Nigeria and the issue of funding. The article finds that the Nigerian state, by deliberately under-funding the police, while expecting the agency to perform its duties, has indirectly sanctioned the corruption of the force and approved the cooption of the institution of police and policing for private use in Nigeria.