Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: There is a problem in all contemporary theories of popular sovereignty. These theories argue that a state can be legitimate only if the people have a unified will, but they cannot show that the people are unified at any given time. Sometimes these theories posit unity in the future, sometimes in the past, but never in the present where they insist it must be. I call this problem the indeterminacy of popular unification. Since Rousseau first noted and struggled with it, many political theorists have been aware of this problem; but none has ever solved it. This paper argues that this problem can be solved provided that we concieve of the people as a process, rather than as a collection of individuals or a unified person. The people thus conceived is a source of legitimacy that moors state institutions, but is now infused with change, surprise and innovation.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Over the past 50 years, popular music has received increasing editorial space in American and European newspapers and has apparently gained in status and artistic legitimacy, though the degree of change varies across countries (Janssen et al., 2005). Some have argued that popular music criticism has assimilated the evaluative criteria traditionally associated with high art aesthetics, while others have claimed that popular music discourse opposes the evaluative principles of high art worlds in favor of a �popular aesthetic�. Just as increases in editorial space for popular music vary across countries, we expect that the presence of �high art� and �popular� aesthetic criteria in popular music reviews also varies cross-nationally. In this paper, we compare the prevalence of various high art and popular evaluative criteria in popular music album reviews in American, Dutch, and German newspapers. In the US, the boundary between high art and popular aesthetics appears to be weakest, with most popular music reviews drawing on both types of criteria. We find that German reviewers generally take the most high art approach to popular music reviews and use the least popular aesthetic criteria, while Dutch reviews clearly favor the popular aesthetic over high art criteria.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Abstract



This paper analyses global dynamics that foster environmental conflicts all over the world, especially in developing and underdeveloped countries. In this effort, dialectics between “local” and “global” are examined. Contemporary globalization is placed in a wide framework that brings to the fore the coloniality of power still at work in intra-, trans- and international relations. In this context, growing large-scale production not only meets the needs of population growth, but also of a globalizing consumer culture, which results in a rapid expansion of environmental degradation, with subaltern groups bearing the heaviest impacts on their livelihoods. Hence, there is a systemic rise in environmental conflicts, while transnational capital, having the power to move to new places, is always in an advantageous position. A resistance to such prevailing dynamics, “popular ecologism” comprises a variety of struggles for environmental justice, in defense of survival and values. In the face of polluting enterprises oriented towards global markets, these social movements claim that local people have the right to define the terms and conditions of “development” promoted by transnational corporations, states, international organizations and global governance agencies. Finally, this paper explores the way these movements – by means of transnational processes – eventually achieve national, regional and world notoriety.





Resumo



O objetivo deste trabalho é abordar, primeiramente, dinâmicas globais responsáveis pela proliferação de conflitos ambientais ao redor do mundo, especialmente nos países “em desenvolvimento” ou “subdesenvolvidos”. Neste esforço, explora-se a dialética entre “local” e “global”. A partir do entendimento da globalização contemporânea em um quadro temporal e teórico amplo, acentua-se a persistência da colonialidade do poder nas relações internacionais, transnacionais e intranacionais. Neste contexto, a crescente produção de mercadorias em larga escala atende não só ao aumento da população mundial, como também a uma cultura consumista que se globaliza, e implica a acelerada expansão das fronteiras da degradação ambiental, com impactos mais graves sobre grupos subalternos. Conseqüentemente, há um aumento sistêmico dos conflitos ambientais, nos quais o capital transnacional tem como grande vantagem o poder de se relocalizar. O “ecologismo popular” – uma resistência às dinâmicas dominantes apontadas – compreende uma variedade de lutas por justiça ambiental, em defesa da sobrevivência e de valores. Diante da localização de empreendimentos poluentes voltados ao mercado global, tais movimentos sociais reivindicam o papel político do “local” na definição dos termos e condições deste “desenvolvimento” promovido por empresas transnacionais, Estados nacionais, organizações internacionais e agências da governança global. Por fim, o presente trabalho explora como essas resistências se articulam cada vez mais em processos transnacionais, pelos quais obtêm, eventualmente, projeção nacional, regional e mundial.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Explores the online selection of new stories by an audience who is able to view, email, or recommend content, all common forms of interactive story tools available on news sites. Online news selection differs from print or broadcast. Yahoo! News presents readers with the editors� selection. Individual readers then use story tools to make their own decisions and their preferred story tool. The aggregate results of most popular stories in each interactive category are then displayed for audiences. This article examines factors that can distinguish top-rated emailed from top-rated recommended stories looking for trends in news selection. This study shows that news selection shifts from gatekeepers to audiences. Trends that show differences among online and other media and also among story tools build the case for a more complex understanding of news selection that involves audiences.

Publication Type: Proceeding