Thesis (M.A.)--University of Montana, 2007. / Title from title screen. Description based on contents viewed July 31, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 114-119).

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2007. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Michael Everts. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 170-171).

Purpose – Today, there is an increase in the use of Internet and a decline in political participation. A discussion on wheatear or not the concept of political participation should be broadened to also include political activates online has begun. The purpose of this study is to investigate the view of political participation among youth.Methodology – This study is quantitative in nature, since it builds on two previous quantitative studies. One is a national study about Swedes and the Internet, and the other on a regional level concerning youth in Skåne. Data from the two studies are used to confirm or disregard four hypotheses which are deducted from the presented theoretical framework concerning political participation.Key Findings – This study finds support that youth are more political participant on the Internet than the older generation, but also show that a traditional political participation is valued higher. Youth have more faith in their opportunity to affect political decisions on different decision-levels. A difference in preferred sources for information has also been detected, and youth value Internet higher as a source for information whereas the older generation prefer traditional media. / <p>2015-06-03</p>

Research has demonstrated a positive relationship between consumption of traditional news media and engaging in mainstream political participation including voting, donating money to a political campaign and volunteering for a political campaign. Significantly less attention has been directed toward understanding how new media, including websites, social networking sites and blogs, may affect political participation. Data from the 2008 Pew Internet and American Life Project is used to analyze the relationship between traditional news media, radio and new news media and different forms of political participation, including traditional participation, unconventional or protest participation and those who engage in both, called heavy participators. Results suggest the importance of new media for political participation. Although traditional media had no significant relationship with any form of political participation, those who reported new media as a more important source of political information were more likely to engage in traditional participation relative to non-participation and heavy participation relative to non-participation, mainstream-only and unconventional-only participation.

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro / Compreendido como um fenômeno da contemporaneidade, a partir da década de 80 o movimento feminista é um exemplo do que se convencionou denominar por novos movimentos sociais. A partir desse momento, verifica-se uma tendência de as demandas dos movimentos expandirem-se para lutas estruturadas em torno de opressões sofridas, principalmente identitárias, no lugar de militâncias da esfera estritamente econômica. Neste contexto é que o presente estudo insere-se. Este trabalho tem como objetivo verificar as motivações de jovens brasileiras, de origens pobres, moradoras em áreas de favelas ou bairros populares, em movimentos feministas no Rio de Janeiro. Foram analisadas suas motivações iniciais e as que as manteriam militando, observando-se algumas tensões existentes nessas participações políticas. Visando ao mapeamento da ambientação histórica e política dos movimentos sociais que se abriam como possibilidades a estas jovens, buscamos traçar um breve histórico dos movimentos sociais na contemporaneidade e, em especial, nos contextos latino-americano e brasileiro, a partir da bibliografia disponível sobre o tema. Para o caso específico dos movimentos no Rio de Janeiro, foram realizadas entrevistas com antigas militantes. Tendo em vista que as entrevistadas advinham de famílias pobres, consideramos importante enveredar nas discussões sobre as exclusões sociais, a partir de uma literatura crítica ao conceito, e procurando verificar os rebatimentos das teorias à situação especial em estudo. A pesquisa de campo contou com entrevistas semi-estruturadas realizadas com cinco jovens, com idades entre 19 e 29 anos. Para efeitos analíticos, compreendemos suas histórias a partir da metodologia da História Oral, a qual visa evidenciar a multiplicidade de vozes outrora desprezadas pelo saber científico, sublinhando o caráter militante do entrevistador. Buscando conhecer as histórias de vida das entrevistadas, foram focalizados aspectos tais como: suas origens familiares, suas condições de jovens; situação de moradia e circulações pela cidade; percursos escolares e trajetórias de trabalho. A partir desses dados abordarmos suas trajetórias militantes. / Acknowledged as a contemporary phenomenon, starting in the 80s, the feminist movement is an example of what has been called new social movements. Starting at that moment, the trend is for the movements demands to expand for struggles around oppressions, specially those related to identity, instead of movements structured in a strictly economical sphere and it is in that context that we find the present research. The research had as its goal to investigate the motivations of young Brazilian women, from deprived backgrounds, living in favelas or impoverished neighborhoods, in feminist movements in Rio de Janeiro. Their initial motivations were analyzed as well as what would keep them militating, taking into account some existing tensions in such political participations. In order to understand the historical and political context of the social movements that have been set as opportunities to those young women, we searched to establish a brief history of the contemporary social movements, specially, in the Latin-American and Brazilian context, taking into consideration the available bibliography. In Rio de Janeiros case, in particular, old militants were interviewed. Since we established that the young women interviewed were from deprived backgrounds, we considered important to also discuss social exclusions, considering the critical theories on the concept and searching to verify how the theory applied to the situations we found in this research. Fieldwork had semi-structured interviews with five young women, aged from 19 to 29 years old. We searched to understand their stories using the Oral History methodology that tries to evidentiate the multiplicity of voices previously not taken into consideration by science, in order to highlight the militant aspect of the interviewer. In order to get to know their life stories, we focused on aspects such as their family origins, their conditions as young people, their habitational situation and trajects around the city; scholarly and word trajectories, to, later on, investigate their militant trajectories.

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro / Compreendido como um fenômeno da contemporaneidade, a partir da década de 80 o movimento feminista é um exemplo do que se convencionou denominar por novos movimentos sociais. A partir desse momento, verifica-se uma tendência de as demandas dos movimentos expandirem-se para lutas estruturadas em torno de opressões sofridas, principalmente identitárias, no lugar de militâncias da esfera estritamente econômica. Neste contexto é que o presente estudo insere-se. Este trabalho tem como objetivo verificar as motivações de jovens brasileiras, de origens pobres, moradoras em áreas de favelas ou bairros populares, em movimentos feministas no Rio de Janeiro. Foram analisadas suas motivações iniciais e as que as manteriam militando, observando-se algumas tensões existentes nessas participações políticas. Visando ao mapeamento da ambientação histórica e política dos movimentos sociais que se abriam como possibilidades a estas jovens, buscamos traçar um breve histórico dos movimentos sociais na contemporaneidade e, em especial, nos contextos latino-americano e brasileiro, a partir da bibliografia disponível sobre o tema. Para o caso específico dos movimentos no Rio de Janeiro, foram realizadas entrevistas com antigas militantes. Tendo em vista que as entrevistadas advinham de famílias pobres, consideramos importante enveredar nas discussões sobre as exclusões sociais, a partir de uma literatura crítica ao conceito, e procurando verificar os rebatimentos das teorias à situação especial em estudo. A pesquisa de campo contou com entrevistas semi-estruturadas realizadas com cinco jovens, com idades entre 19 e 29 anos. Para efeitos analíticos, compreendemos suas histórias a partir da metodologia da História Oral, a qual visa evidenciar a multiplicidade de vozes outrora desprezadas pelo saber científico, sublinhando o caráter militante do entrevistador. Buscando conhecer as histórias de vida das entrevistadas, foram focalizados aspectos tais como: suas origens familiares, suas condições de jovens; situação de moradia e circulações pela cidade; percursos escolares e trajetórias de trabalho. A partir desses dados abordarmos suas trajetórias militantes. / Acknowledged as a contemporary phenomenon, starting in the 80s, the feminist movement is an example of what has been called new social movements. Starting at that moment, the trend is for the movements demands to expand for struggles around oppressions, specially those related to identity, instead of movements structured in a strictly economical sphere and it is in that context that we find the present research. The research had as its goal to investigate the motivations of young Brazilian women, from deprived backgrounds, living in favelas or impoverished neighborhoods, in feminist movements in Rio de Janeiro. Their initial motivations were analyzed as well as what would keep them militating, taking into account some existing tensions in such political participations. In order to understand the historical and political context of the social movements that have been set as opportunities to those young women, we searched to establish a brief history of the contemporary social movements, specially, in the Latin-American and Brazilian context, taking into consideration the available bibliography. In Rio de Janeiros case, in particular, old militants were interviewed. Since we established that the young women interviewed were from deprived backgrounds, we considered important to also discuss social exclusions, considering the critical theories on the concept and searching to verify how the theory applied to the situations we found in this research. Fieldwork had semi-structured interviews with five young women, aged from 19 to 29 years old. We searched to understand their stories using the Oral History methodology that tries to evidentiate the multiplicity of voices previously not taken into consideration by science, in order to highlight the militant aspect of the interviewer. In order to get to know their life stories, we focused on aspects such as their family origins, their conditions as young people, their habitational situation and trajects around the city; scholarly and word trajectories, to, later on, investigate their militant trajectories.

Magister Legum - LLM / This paper gave an insight into the novelties as well as the deficiencies of the provisions related to democratic elections and their implementation framework. It examined the potential effectiveness or otherwise of a binding treaty which is not yet enforced on the basis of past experience. In effect, it shed light on the possible measures that could be taken to guarantee its realisation and to circumvent the shortcomings in ensuring its effective implementation. / South Africa

Public planning agencies in democratic political systems are faced by a demand from the public for the opportunity to have an influence on decision-making processes. Evidence suggests that this demand for public participation will not decline. The typical planning agency response to this demand results from common perceptions of the arguments in favour of participation. The literature suggests that this response has been a reluctant and marginal inclusion of public participation in decision-making processes, in reaction to forces external to the agency. The usual arguments for public participation in planning are based in democratic political theory, and are arguments which have to do with the benefits of participation for the public or the political system. These arguments are themselves not conclusive, for there are different schools of democratic theory which ascribe different levels of significance to participation. Public participation approached from the basis of this political theory does not lead to a concept of it being of significant benefit to the planning agency's organizational needs, except insofar as engaging in participation may make the agency conform to political requirements. An alternative approach, based on organizational theory, considers public participation from the viewpoint of how it may serve organizational needs of the public planning agency. The current Open Systems view of organizations provides such a means for undertaking an organizational approach to public participation. It considers an organization's communication with its external environment to be a critical element in its functioning. An examination of the principles and concepts of the Open Systems view of organizations demonstrates that they are applicable to public participation and the public planning agency. The Open Systems view can be integrated with a model of a public planning agency developed according to current planning theory, and with political systems theory as the latter pertains to a planning agency's interrelationships with its environment. When this integration is done within the context of the manner in which the representative democratic system functions, the result suggests that public participation assists in meeting certain "organizational" needs of the public planning agency. This "organizational approach" to public participation provides a rationale for a planning agency's positive attitude towards public participation, since it is an approach which considers the benefits to the planning agency as an organization. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Transforming economic growth into tangible benefits for poor communities appears to have frustrated development practitioners and policy makers. Despite the net positive growth achieved between 1994 and 2014 the face of poverty and inequality remains largely unchanged in South Africa. In such circumstances there is a pressing need for scholars to rethink the social foundations of economic activity and policy (Chang, 2006; Fine, 2001, 2005). One specific line of enquiry that has attracted attention among economists (Stiglitz, 2000; Woolcock, 2001; Fine, 2001) is that of social capital. This thesis seeks understanding of the relationship between social capital and the socioeconomic advancement of poor African/Black residents, particularly those in rural municipalities where there is a lack of financial and other resources. With this in mind, Robert Putnam’s path-breaking theory will be reformulated to explore the relationship during the mid-2000s between social capital, trust, political participation and socioeconomic outcomes in two rural municipalities in the Western Cape province of South Africa, namely Cederberg and Matzikama. The research questions the adequacy of Putnam’s theory of social capital, arguing that it is conceptually simple and inadequate as a description of how membership in social groups (networks) lead to better socioeconomic outcomes in the context of marginal, rural African/Black communities residing in under-capacitated municipalities. The thesis argues that an alternative conceptual framework is required, capable of depicting the complexity of the social processes required to translate social group membership into tangible benefits for poor households, as an explanation of why African/Blacks in Cederberg experienced better socioeconomic outcomes than their counterparts in Matzikama.

A common interpretation of the age gap in electoral turnout is that younger cohorts are apathetic and part of a generation that is absent from political life. Still, youth political participation differs across European countries, and cross- national variation in the age gap has been rarely examined in the literature. This paper, therefore, argues that unequal voting in Europe is due not to a lack of interest in the public good but rather to a combination of contextual and individual factors. This study examines young and older individuals' engagement with electoral politics in 26 European countries using the European Social Survey data between 2008 and 2018. Specifically, this study addresses the questions of (1) what context-related factors determine the age gap in voting between old and young citizens and (2) why the age gap in voting is smaller in some countries than in others. The results show that the age gap varies considerably across countries. The OLS and FE regressions results suggest that government expenditure, the share of migrants, and the age of democracy influence the level of age gap in voting. The findings on macroeconomic and immigration factors raise methodological concerns.