Political battlefield: aggressive metaphors,gender, and power in news coverage of Canadian party leadership contests

Our study analyzed aggressive figures of speech used by the Globe and Mail to describe the personas, performances, and prospects of women and men leadership candidates for the (Progressive) Conservative Party of Canada in 1976, 1993, and 2004. We codified four distinct forms of power communicated by the aggressive metaphors—power over, power to, power with, and power as—to investigate what these battleground metaphors communicate about gender and political power. Our content analysis and discourse analysis of the phrases applied to each of the candidates revealed gendered assumptions about political leadership. All three women candidates in our study—Flora MacDonald (1976), Kim Campbell (1993), and Belinda Stronach (2004)—were discussed as formidable foes, capable of using considerable force in their efforts to win. Indeed, Campbell became Canada’s first and only woman prime minister. Yet, much of the aggressive mediation confirms the gendered mediation thesis that aggressive metaphors exclude women and reconstitute politics as masculine. Many of the combative phrases cast doubt on a woman candidate’s ability to successfully compete on the political battlefield.     

The inclusion of the other in ourselves: reception and comprehension of refugees in Portugal

Abstract

The intensification of different types of migration movements during the last decades is an expression of growing interconnections at the global level. The so called ‘refugee crisis’ is the most visible sign of this intensification. It currently challenges societies to rethink the processes of integrating those fleeing from humanitarian crises and wars. Portuguese civil society has pioneered the creation of a Refugee Support Platform, aimed to address the challenges associated with the arrival of refugee families. Within this platform, an e-learning course was created to help institutions and host families prepare for this task. In the article we first describe this course, focusing our analysis on the relevance of this initiative for institutions, families, and private citizens that wish to welcome refugees in Portugal. We then briefly reflect on the literature pertaining to intercultural dialogue and social tensions. In the final section we analyse the voices of those who attended the course. We conclude with an analysis of the contents of the course modules and the participation of the trainees as a contribution to their self-transformation.     

Public crises,public futures

This article begins to map out a novel approach to analysing contemporary contexts of public crisis, relationships between them and possibilities that these scenes hold out for politics. The article illustrates and analyses a small selection of examples of these kinds of contemporary scenes and calls for greater attention to be given to the conditions and consequences of different forms and practices of public and political mediation. In offering a three-fold typology to delineate differences between ‘abject’, ‘audience’ and ‘agentic’ publics the article begins to draw out how political and public futures may be seen as being bound up with how the potentialities, capacities and qualities that publics are imagined to have and resourced to perform. Public action and future publics are therefore analysed here in relation to different versions of contemporary crisis and the political concerns and publics these crises work to articulate, foreground and imaginatively and practically support.     

The role of multi-objective optimization in negotiation and mediation support

The paper reviews the methodology of multi-objective modeling and optimization used in decision support based on computerized analytical models (as opposed to logical models used in expert systems) that represent expert knowledge in a given field. The essential aspects of this methodology relate to its flexibility: modeling and optimization methods are treated not as goals in themselves but as tools that help a sovereign user (an analyst or a decision maker) to interact with the model, to generate and analyze various decision options, to learn about possible outcomes of these decisions. Although the applications of such methods in negotiation and mediation support is scarce yet, their flexibility increases essentially the chances of such applications. Various aspects of negotiation and mediation methods related to multi-objective optimization and game theory are also reviewed. A possible application of the MCBARG system for supporting negotiation related to the acid rain problem is briefly summarized.     

Mitigating the effect of risk conditions on supply disruptions: the role of manufacturing postponement enablers

While previous published studies have evaluated the drivers of supply disruptions, only a few have empirically investigated the role of manufacturing postponement enablers as mitigating practices. This work explores the complex interaction between supply disruptions (i.e. supplier failure, purchase unavailability), risk conditions (i.e. antecedents that positively influence the probability and severity of supply disruptions) and manufacturing postponement enablers (i.e. product and process modularity). Specifically, we aim at understanding ‘when’ manufacturing postponement enablers should be adopted the most and ‘if’ their adoption can fully mitigate the effect risk conditions exert on supply disruptions’ probability and severity. To achieve our objective, we developed a conceptual model, and we tested it using survey data from 54 Italian manufacturing companies. The results show that supply market difficulty and technological uncertainty imply a higher probability and severity of disruptions associated with supplier failure and purchase unavailability. Most importantly, we provide evidence of the role played by product and process modularity in fully mitigating the effect of technological uncertainty on supply disruptions.     

Critical Review and Uncertainty Analysis of Factors Influencing Influenza Transmission

Influenza remains a significant threat to public health, yet there is significant uncertainty about the routes of influenza transmission from an infectious source through the environment to a receptor, and their relative risks. Herein, data pertaining to factors that influence the environmental mediation of influenza transmission are critically reviewed, including: frequency, magnitude and size distribution and virus expiration, inactivation rates, environmental and self‐contact rates, and viral transfer efficiencies during contacts. Where appropriate, two‐stage Monte Carlo uncertainty analysis is used to characterize variability and uncertainty in the reported data. Significant uncertainties are present in most factors, due to: limitations in instrumentation or study realism; lack of documentation of data variability; or lack of study. These analyses, and future experimental work, will improve parameterization of influenza transmission and risk models, facilitating more robust characterization of the magnitude and uncertainty in infection risk.     

试析《劳动争议调解仲裁法》的不足及完善

《劳动争议调解仲裁法》的立法精神和理念、基本制度上均有重大改革和创新,基本上适应了市场经济条件下劳动争议处理的要求,对构建和谐劳动关系意义重大。但由于诸多条件的限制,这部新法仍存在一些突出的问题与不足,亟待进一步研究和解决。本文着重基于法理与比较法视角,在分析劳动争议的概念和本质、西方各国劳动争议处理模式及其特征的基础上,对我国《劳动争议调解仲裁法》的不足及完善进行了初步探讨。     

司法确认之判析:法律定位及区别对待

司法确认是当今民事司法改革的创新成果,是我国人民调解事业快速发展的重要标志。当前,我国法学理论界、司法实务界、群团组织等对于司法确认的法律定位模糊,混淆对待司法确认程序与民事诉讼程序、简易程序、特别程序以及民事非诉程序等民事程序,亟待我们准确判析并采取适度合理的应对措施,因应改观,使司法确认程序得以可持续的规范化成长和运行。     

行为控制对威客持续参与意愿的影响:被调节的中介模型

威客的持续参与意愿是维持众包平台可持续性发展的关键因素。在众包参与过程中,平台实施的控制机制是否会影响持续参与意愿还缺乏系统的理论分析和实证研究。基于感知组织支持理论,本文构建了被调节的中介模型和相关假设,探讨行为控制如何通过归属感的中介作用影响持续参与意愿,以及在不同的程序公平水平下,行为控制通过归属感提升持续参与意愿的机制会有怎样的变化。基于“猪八戒网”搜集的290份样本数据,对模型进行实证检验。结果表明,归属感在行为控制影响持续参与意愿的关系中起部分中介作用;同时,程序公平正向调节上述中介作用,即程序公平越高,归属感在行为控制与持续参与意愿关系间的中介作用越容易实现。研究结果丰富、扩展了已有的众包理论研究,并为众包实践提供了管理启示与指导。