Sebastián Valenzuela, Nicolás M. Somma, Andrés Scherman and Arturo Arriagada
The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between social media use and protest participation in Latin America. It advances two questions. First, does social media…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between social media use and protest participation in Latin America. It advances two questions. First, does social media increase the chances of protest participation at the individual level, as prior research shows for advanced democracies? Second, in a region with glaring economic and political inequalities, does social media deepen or reduce the gaps in protest participation that exist among men and women, the young and the old, different social classes, or people with varying levels of political engagement?
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses cross-sectional Latin American Public Opinion Project survey data from 2012 representing the adult population of 17 Latin American countries. It presents binary logistic regression models with protest participation as the dependent variable, social media use for political purposes as the main independent variable, control variables, and interactions.
Findings
Using social media for political purposes significantly increases protest chances – it is the second strongest predictor. Additionally, social media reduces protest gaps associated with individuals’ age, gender, psychological engagement with politics, and recruitment networks.
Originality/value
First, the paper shows that the contribution of social media to collective protest travels beyond advanced democracies – it also holds for more unequal regions with weaker democratic trajectories like Latin America. Second, it shows that social media may mitigate participatory inequalities not only, as shown by past research, regarding institutional participation (e.g. voting), but also regarding contentious tactics.
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Susan Alberts, Mireya Dávila and Arturo Valenzuela
In the decades following Chile's 1990 return to democracy, successive governments adopted pioneering reforms aimed at modernizing the state and strengthening democratic…
Abstract
In the decades following Chile's 1990 return to democracy, successive governments adopted pioneering reforms aimed at modernizing the state and strengthening democratic governance. This chapter discusses the major developments within Chile's public sector since 1990, with an emphasis on reforms affecting the civil service and public sector management. The politics of the reform process was notable for successful consensus building and led to a more meritocratic, professionally managed public employment system. This chapter also provides an overview of initiatives to strengthen accountability through greater transparency and citizen participation in government, as well as the major public sector management reforms adopted during the last three decades.
Ricardo Leiva and David Kimber
The overall objective of this chapter is measuring the effect of key economic indicators and trends on the media reputation of an emergent country. The case analyzed is that of…
Abstract
The overall objective of this chapter is measuring the effect of key economic indicators and trends on the media reputation of an emergent country. The case analyzed is that of Chile, since 1990–2015. To deal with our objective, we measured the media reputation of Chile following validated criteria by Deephouse (2000).
A regression analysis was conducted to test our hypothesis that the coefficient of media favorableness (CoMF) of a country depends on the favorable or unfavorable trend of key economic indicators of the country. The dependent variable of our model was the Chilean CoMF. Independent variables were the monthly GDP variation, the monthly unemployment rate, the monthly average of the stock exchange index, the monthly average fuel price, and the monthly average copper price (a very important commodity to Chile).
Our results demonstrate that key economic indicators have a significant positive bearing on the media reputation of an emergent country as Chile, that is, when an emergent country is doing well economically, the press with a global scope tends to improve the reputation of that country, showing a more favorable image about it. In consequence, our hypothesis is supported. In the case of an emergent and small Western country as Chile, the price of commodities appears as the most important predictive indicator of its favorable or unfavorable country reputation. Other implications are discussed in the study.
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Marcelo Luis Barbosa dos Santos
When a concept is diffusely defined or, as this article argues, “taken for granted”, it becomes very difficult to track such concept on the literature and have some continuity as…
Abstract
Purpose
When a concept is diffusely defined or, as this article argues, “taken for granted”, it becomes very difficult to track such concept on the literature and have some continuity as researchers build on top of previous results. This article proposes a definition for user-generated content, a term that though has lost some saliency, stands in the center or the social media phenomenon, so it should not be disregarded as an object of study.
Design/methodology/approach
Celebrating 20 years of the concept, this research performs a multidisciplinary literature review of 61 academic articles on UGC. Through deconstruction of the acronym UGC, it builds on the present converging, conflicting and diverging definitions and/or approaches to UGC on an attempt to consolidate a broader definition that encompasses the complexities of the phenomenon in a context of consolidation of social media, to be applied to social sciences.
Findings
Following the present analysis, UGC is defined as any kind of text, data or action performed by online digital systems users, published and disseminated by the same user through independent channels, that incur an expressive or communicative effect either on an individual manner or combined with other contributions from the same or other sources.
Originality/value
This is the first academic effort that aims to create an in-depth dialogue over the different approaches to UGC across disciplines on the social sciences field. It should help reignite interest in the acronym, which got somehow eclipsed by the broader field of social media; whilst without UGC, social media would not exist or would not have the same social impact it does in its current form. Analogously, UGC as a topic of research has been deeply affected by the emergence and consolidation of Social Media. As this debate evolves, this contribution should be helpful as a reference to operationalize UGC on future research.
Peer review
The peer-review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-06-2020-0258
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Salvador Antón i Clavé, Francisco López Palomeque, Manuel J. Marchena Gómez, Sevilla Vera Rebollo and J. Fernando Vera Rebollo
The Geography of Tourism in Spain is now at a par in terms of its scientific production with other European countries. Since the middle of the '80s the quality and volume of…
Abstract
The Geography of Tourism in Spain is now at a par in terms of its scientific production with other European countries. Since the middle of the '80s the quality and volume of contributions is analogous to the rest of the European Union, although as a part of University Geography in Spain it has not achieved the level of dedication reached by other subjects considering the importance of tourist activities to the economy, the society and the territory of Spain. It could be said that the Geography of Tourism in Spain is in the international vanguard in dealing with Mediterranean coastal tourism, with the relationships between the residential real estate and tourism sectors and with aspects related to tourism and leisure in rural and protected areas.
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Drawing on debates on deliberative and participatory democracy, I argue that social movements can be considered to be promoting democratization when they are able to compel…
Abstract
Drawing on debates on deliberative and participatory democracy, I argue that social movements can be considered to be promoting democratization when they are able to compel governments to increase effective participation in the policy-making process, and/or when their democratic claims are translated into an agenda and/or policy impact. This indicates that a social movement has increased the responsiveness of the government it is challenging. Based on this premise, in this paper, I trace the political impact of the Student Movement in Chile. Spearheading the largest protests since the reinstatement of democracy, in 2006, and most notably, in 2011, the Student Movement forced a debate on education and political reforms, and a series of policies to address these issues. The analysis is grounded on more than 50 interviews, and an exhaustive analysis of organizational documents and newspaper data. The case examined in this paper illustrates how the expansion of political opportunities that is necessary for pursuing democratizing reforms not only is driven “from above,” but also “from below.” Studying this process, social movement scholarship can learn a great deal from recent cases of social mobilization in Latin America. These experiences also call for more attention to the role of social movements in democratization studies.
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Erwin Tapia Mella and Anne Zahra
This chapter examines tourism policy processes in Chile in reference to sustainability, and the role of the government and governance in the delivery of sustainable practices in…
Abstract
This chapter examines tourism policy processes in Chile in reference to sustainability, and the role of the government and governance in the delivery of sustainable practices in this country. There is a gap in the research examining national governance structures in the development and implementation of sustainable tourism policies, despite the importance and the high policy priority given to this task by the United Nations Environment Program and United Nations World Tourism Organization. Study data was collected in three stages: document and website analysis, interviews, and a semi-structured online questionnaire with key industry stakeholders. The findings indicate that the concept of sustainability appears to be at an embryonic stage in Chile, and that emerging policies seem to be leading the way in terms of sustainable development. Government policy and governance structures are still at the formulation stage and threats to this process are also highlighted.
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Gracie Irvine, Natasha Pauli, Renata Varea and Bryan Boruff
The Ba River catchment and delta on the island of Viti Levu, Fiji, supports a wealth of livelihoods and is populated by diverse communities who are living with an increased…
Abstract
The Ba River catchment and delta on the island of Viti Levu, Fiji, supports a wealth of livelihoods and is populated by diverse communities who are living with an increased frequency and intensity of hydro-meteorological hazards (floods, cyclones and droughts). Participatory mapping as part of focus group discussions is a tool that can be used to elucidate communities’ understanding of the differing impacts of multiple hazards, as well as the strategies used to prepare and respond to different hazards. In this chapter, the authors present the results of qualitative research undertaken with members of three communities along the Ba River, from the Nausori highlands to the coastal mangroves, with a particular focus on recent floods (2009, 2012) and Tropical Cyclone Winston (2016). The communities draw on a wide range of livelihood strategies from fishing and agriculture to tourism and outside work. Natural hazard events vary in their impact on these livelihood strategies across the landscape and seascape, so that community members can adjust their activities accordingly. The temporal ‘signatures’ of ongoing impacts are also variable across communities and resources. The results suggest that taking a broad, landscape (and seascape) approach to understanding how communities draw livelihoods is valuable in informing effective and inclusive adaptation strategies for environmental change. Furthermore, documenting how the landscape is used in a mapped output may be a valuable tool for future social impact assessment for resource extraction activities.
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Gonzalo Muñoz, José Weinstein and Matías Sembler
This paper aims to describe the levels and type of contingency faced by school principals in Chile and the way certain aspects of the Chilean school system result in a greater or…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to describe the levels and type of contingency faced by school principals in Chile and the way certain aspects of the Chilean school system result in a greater or lesser presence of these contingencies.
Design/methodology/approach
The results reported here are based on the application of a structured questionnaire to 381 elementary school principals in Chile. A “Leadership Contingency Index” was created to analyze the extent and characteristics of this phenomenon, which was complemented with a multiple regression analysis to observe the variables that influence the levels of contingency.
Findings
This study has shown that the main contingencies faced by school leaders in Chile revolve around the relationship between actors: assist families, relationship with and among students and resolution of school staff problems. Also shows that the level of contingency faced by principals is strongly conditioned by the socio-educational context of the school and is not related to the individual characteristics of the leaders. This level of contingencies is significantly higher in the public system, although the most recurrent contingencies are the same in each type of school administration (public, private subsidized and privately funded schools).
Originality/value
This paper addresses an important but relatively unexplored dimension in specialized research on leadership: variable contingencies under which the leadership role is performed daily, including significant gaps between schools. Understanding and analyzing school leadership from the perspective of the complexity of tasks currently faced by principals, many of them highly unpredictable, ensures a realistic view of the possibilities and limitations of leadership in action and, consequently, provides better tools to strengthen the school leadership role and its contribution to improving student learning.