A postdoc by day and a scientific activist by night, Nick Anthis isn't letting his research in protein structure and function get in the way of defending scientific and social progress.
This one is for my readers in Oxford. The Oxford Internet Institute is hosting what could be a semi-relevant and interesting talk this Wednesday at noon. Here are the details:
Title: Political Blogging in Campaign and Political Communication: Campaigning for Political Leadership 2.0?
Speaker: J. Ignacio Criado (OII Visiting Fellow)
When: Wednesday 8 August 2007 12:00 - 13:30
Abstract:
The extended use of Internet facilities within the generalization of social access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the advanced societies has contributed to both the diffusion and instrumentation of new digital systems of social organization and mobilization and the emergence and development of virtual communities, by expanding the collaborative principles of the so called Web 2.0 Philosophy (Musser and O'Reilly 2006). Indeed, this actuality is progressively transcending the communicative behavior of the citizenship to take roots in the political ground: the political blogging phenomenon probably being the most outstanding symptom of the impact that e-communication is making on the political arena (Barrero et al. 2006; Coleman 2004; Pole 2006).
Needless to say, the introduction and strengthening of the blogging practice into the political game attaches new links to the large chain of unsolved questions that ties up the democratic political leadership issue (Martínez Fuentes 2006). Does political blogging give a new meaning to the communicative dimension of the democratic political leadership? Does it introduce a transformation into the classical relational dynamics between political leaders and followers?
A tentative approximation to such subject matter and its features in Spanish casuistry is presented in this paper. In so doing, we propose a conciliation of leadership studies and ICTs theories to focus on the significance that political blogging may have within the classical Spanish pattern of relation between political leadership and political partisanship.
Setting out this theoretical framework, we hypothesize that the political blog tool might entail mostly either partisan campaign-seeking nature - the political blog then being a new electoral tool for the old purpose of the partidification of the political relationships between the voters and those who aspire to represent them in the institutions - or personal leadership network-seeking nature - contrary being the political blog a new instrument for the transformational goal of the personalization of the political relations between the electors and those who are or aspire to be elected.
In order to test this hypothesis, we follow a comparative case study methodology, conducting a descriptive analysis of the political blog of a selection of majors competing in the electoral campaign for the local government election of May 2007.
You can download the full paper in pdf format here.
To register, send an email to events at oii.ox.ac.uk.
If relevant, I'll share my impressions here after the seminar.
Hat tip to Anna Oldmeadow and Jeni Whalan.
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Comments
My freelance article entitled, Positive Constructive Growth and Development As Advocated by Dr. Eric Drexler Is Facilitated by Free Fair Democratic Elections currently published on my Google Blog, Reaching for the Stars ( http://rats-spelled-backwards.blogspot.com/2008/03/positive-social-and-institutional.html ) , provides insight into scientific activism:
In Dr. Eric Drexler�s book entitled, Engines of Creation: Preparing Society for the Coming Era of Nanotechnology, Dr. Eric Drexler aptly pointed out that positive social growth, development, and maturation needs to occur in society in order for society to keep pace with an accelerating rate of scientific progress. Presidential Election years are an optimum time to encourage positive social growth, development, and maturation.
My freelance article entitled, Spider Pig, Spider Pig Does Whatever a Spider Pig Does As Related to the Familiar Cliche, �I think therefore I am�, shares a significant moment of revelation pertaining to the crossroads of science and political activism:
The DR. SEUSS� HORTON HEARS A WHO! is a animated movie directed at children. Everyone knows that for as long as institutions of higher education continue to exist that science and technology will continue to move forward into the future despite what any one person may do. Thus children on the elementary, middle school, and high school levels should have the opportunity to learn about the impact of nanotechnology upon society. My freelance article entitled, Freedom to At Least Try to Make a Contribution As Related to the Great Debate in Hell, ( "http://rats-spelled-backwards.blogspot.com/2008/03/freedom-to-at-least-try-to-make.html" ) , puts forth a proposal:
My blog, Reaching for the Stars, provides an analysis of current events related to the 2008 Presidential Election within the framework of an accelerating rate of scientific progress in new fields such as nanotechnology. Despite the fact that I have spent enormous time producing Reaching for the Stars, I have not earned one red penny. Who knows? Perhaps, Reaching for the Stars may evolve into a text book providing an analysis of politics during the 21st century for the educational system.
I propose a title for this educational text book may be: Classic Case Study: Participation in American Politics by the Common Man in the 21st Century.
Posted by: Mark | April 2, 2008 10:35 AM