Activist-intellectuals in South Korea played an important role in crafting left populist discourse that drew heavily upon historical memory. I argue that this discourse is more accurately characterized as populist rather than nationalist because it established a clear antagonistic binary between “the people” and “the elites,” who represented sharply contrasting moral qualities. Using a “logic of equivalence,” the activist-intellectuals sorted “elites” and “the people” into sharply delineated blocs, in which the former repeatedly violated the latter’s dreams of national sovereignty and democracy throughout the arc of modern Korean history. In harnessing historical evidence to support this narrative, the activist-intellectuals “thickened” populist discourse. The left populist discourse’s discrediting of not only the elites but also their institutional legacy generated a powerful rationale for remaking the institutional apparatus inherited from preceding authoritarian regimes. This escalated the stakes of the partisan battle between the left and right.
The relationship between social reality and public consciousness represents one of the central problems of social philosophy and historical sociology. While numerous studies have examined the political, economic, and cultural dimensions of Ukrainian historical development, less attention has been devoted to the interaction between transformations in social reality and changes in public consciousness across different historical periods. The purpose of this study is to analyze the evolution of public consciousness in relation to major transformations in the social reality of Ukrainian society. Particular attention is given to the emergence of the Ukrainian ethnos, the development of Kyivan Rus, the rise of the Cossack movement, the formation of the Hetmanate, and the subsequent transformation of Ukrainian society under changing political conditions. The methodological framework combines social-philosophical analysis with historical-sociological interpretation. The study draws upon the social-philosophical conception of the relationship between social being and public consciousness developed by Volovyk, while incorporating contemporary approaches to collective identity, collective memory, and nation formation. Historical analysis is based on the works of Hrushevskyi, Golobutskyi, Polonska-Vasylenko, Rafalskyi, and other scholars of Ukrainian history. The findings demonstrate that public consciousness evolves through continuous interaction with social reality and reflects changes in political institutions, economic structures, social relations, and cultural practices. The study shows that different forms of public consciousness—including political, religious, legal, ethical, and cultural consciousness—emerged and transformed during successive stages of Ukrainian historical development. Special attention is devoted to the role of the Cossack movement and the Hetmanate in strengthening collective identity, political agency, and state-building processes. The article argues that public consciousness should be understood not merely as a reflection of social conditions but also as an active factor influencing historical development. The Ukrainian historical experience demonstrates that transformations in collective consciousness frequently accompany periods of institutional change and contribute to the formation of new social and political realities. The study contributes to broader discussions in social philosophy, historical sociology, collective memory studies, and national identity research by demonstrating the reciprocal relationship between social reality and public consciousness in the historical development of Ukrainian society.
The scientific study of consciousness has produced an extensive range of theoretical frameworks addressing perception, information processing, memory, subjective experience, and neural correlates of awareness. Despite substantial progress in cognitive science, neuroscience, and philosophy of mind, a fundamental problem remains insufficiently explained: the transformation of cognition into effective action. Existing theories successfully account for the generation, integration, and processing of information, yet provide comparatively limited explanations of how individuals maintain alignment with reality in situations where action must occur faster than explicit computation permits. This article proposes a conceptual distinction between computational and geometric functions within human cognition. It argues that memory preserves configurations derived from previous experience, while reason performs computational operations upon those configurations through comparison, classification, prediction, and evaluation. Consciousness, by contrast, is interpreted as a geometric function responsible for transforming cognitive structures into actionable configurations within a changing environment. Building upon insights from consciousness studies, embodied cognition, ecological psychology, phenomenology, expertise research, and decision-making theory, the article develops a heuristic architecture of consciousness consisting of active domains, passive domains, perceptual range, and depth of knowledge. Particular attention is devoted to the tendency of memory to substitute reality with representation and to the functional role of consciousness in restoring alignment between the individual and the environment. The central contribution of the study lies in the introduction of the Transformation Principle, expressed through the sequence Memory → Reason → Consciousness → Action. This framework provides a new perspective on expertise, intuition, learning, and human performance while suggesting a possible avenue for future interdisciplinary research into the relationship between cognition and action.
In this introduction to the Special Issue, we lay out the main lines of inquiry that guide our study. The main question addressed is the role of intellectuals in episodes of radical political mobilization, that is actions bent on challenging or upending the incumbent political order. In particular, we focus on the intellectuals’ production and intellectuals’ activity. To do this, we address in turn the questions of who can be considered an intellectual, and how do they establish (or fail to do so) a connection with other social actors to spur and sustain political mobilization. The main goal is to map the different ways in which these process and dynamics unfold. This mapping is carried out by analyzing a host of different contexts, thanks to a comparative approach that is intended to juxtapose cases from a diverse array of ideational traditions, cultural milieus and political projects.
This article examines the evolution of scenario thinking from its mythological and philosophical roots to its consolidation as a cognitive and institutional discipline within contemporary social sciences. Drawing on archetypal structures, analytical traditions (Kahn, Schelling), and managerial practices (Wack, Schwartz, van der Heijden), the study traces how scenarios have evolved from hypothetical sequences of events (“scenario”) into a broader intellectual framework (“scenario thinking”) and, ultimately, into an integrative worldview (“scenario worldview”). Methodologically, the research integrates cultural, cognitive, and strategic perspectives, emphasizing the role of multi-layered representations of the world – perceptual, apperceptive, semantic, and metaphysical – in shaping collective visions of the future. Special attention is devoted to recent developments such as the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity (VUCA) and turbulent–uncertain–novel–ambiguous (TUNA) models, results-based management, and decision-making under deep uncertainty, which illustrate the institutionalization and experimental validation of scenario practices. The article also analyzes the role of artificial intelligence in enhancing scenario generation, while underscoring the irreplaceable contribution of human intuition, ethics, and symbolic integration in forming scenario worldviews. The findings suggest that the central challenge for futures research lies not in producing increasingly sophisticated forecasts, but in cultivating scenario worldviews as ontological frameworks that bring together imagination, scientific analysis, and collective sense-making to navigate deep uncertainty.
The role of the intellectuals in episodes of radical political mobilization is one of providers of leadership (moral, ideational, and programmatic) to a social formation to foster a given political project. In this article, I propose a Gramscian inspired analysis of the politics of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). I posit that its leadership sought to perform the role of “organic intellectuals” as theorized by Gramsci and thereby spur and sustain a radical political project along the lines of Jihadi-Salafi ideology and practice. I argue that the failure of ISIS leadership and cadres to perform the role of organic intellectuals for the social formation they were addressing and hoping to mobilize (the Sunni populations of Iraq and Syria) contributed to the demise of ISIS political project, as attested by the increasing unpopularity of its rule and governance once it was imposed on local contexts. I offer a Critical Discourse Analysis examination of two texts from prominent ISIS leaders, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi and Abu Muhammad Al-‘Adnani, as I focus on the intersection between ideology and practice in ISIS politics: ultimately, its project did not provide moral direction and political purpose which could galvanize and unify the people under its rule.
How does Islamic activism transform at the transnational level? Drawing on multi-sited fieldwork in Europe and North America, this article examines the trajectories of Islamist activists in exile and the arenas through which they sustain political engagement from abroad. Adopting an arena-based approach, it identifies four hybrid arenas in which Islamist-linked players interact with secular actors, organizations, and policy networks. Across these arenas, activists frequently participate in causes not explicitly framed in Islamic terms, including anti-authoritarian protests, humanitarian action, democratic advocacy, and policy debate. Rather than signaling ideological dilution, such engagement reflects processes through which earlier Islamist political commitments are translated and adapted to the normative frameworks of transnational civic environments. The findings show that exile-based activism enables Islamist actors to sustain ideological continuity while reworking their repertoires of engagement within hybrid arenas that target political transformation not only in their countries of origin but also in host countries and transnationally.
Human sensing, when taken as a conceptual tool, allows us to acquire wisdom in the sense that we are able to feel, acknowledge, and respond in a variety of ways. Through sensing, sensory interactions and knowledge both condition and configure human interpretation and meaning-making. These forms and processes of sensory interaction, knowledge circulation, and transference have transpired and traversed a vast range of domains analyzed in various disciplines in the social sciences, humanities, and beyond. This special issue presents a collection of articles selected from a workshop that earlier took place at the National University of Singapore. By drawing attention to different sites and contexts across Asia, the authors deliberate upon how social actors negotiate and respond to sensory learning, doing, and maneuvering. Through a closer and more nuanced engagement with how sensory knowledge is acquired, deployed, and contested, the papers foreground sense-making scripts and practices across cultures and social groups which may intersect with, contest and/or complement other forms and domains of knowledge-acquisition and knowledge-use. Contributors focus on different aspects of social life that include medical healing practices, permaculture, youth and pedagogy, clay sensibilities and technical knowledge, and marketplace ethnography. They therefore engage critically with a wide-ranging spectrum of discussion and analysis pertaining to the sensory and its multiple forms, engagements, and contestations. By delineating and unpacking varied ecologies of sensory knowledge and the processes of learning, doing, and maneuvering, the papers also develop refreshed theoretical interventions in examining sensory knowledge, practice, and infrastructure as they interrelate extant scholarship.
The 2024 presidential campaign marked an unprecedented time in American politics. The race began with the sitting president, whose son was recently convicted of illegally purchasing a firearm, and a former president, who had been convicted on charges of falsifying business records. Though both legal situations could have been damning for their campaigns, many people felt that the convictions were politically motivated. More specifically, many partisans felt that the charges related to their party’s candidate were politically motivated. The present study examines the influence of partisan motivated reasoning in this unprecedented situation, utilizing the theoretical framework of identity-motivated elaboration to better understand how individuals process information about the convictions of political figures. The findings reveal that partisans spent greater cognitive energy defending the in-party candidate than the candidate from the competing party. Likewise, they engaged in more negatively valenced elaboration against the outparty candidate. Moreover, this identity motivated elaboration biased the attitudinal formation process and influenced perceptions that the legal process was being used as a political weapon. This study highlights the crucial role of identity congruence in shaping perceptions of conviction, influencing both direct and indirect cognitive responses.
Disinformation in the political arena poses a serious threat to democracy, especially during electoral periods. These are critical moments when citizens are highly engaged with public discourse—and when disinformation tends to surge. By distorting facts and manipulating narratives, such falsehoods can undermine informed decision-making and erode trust in democratic institutions. Our main objective is to analyze the activity of actors involved in electoral disinformation. We distinguish between the actors who spread disinformation (called ‘issuers’) and their targets (called ‘recipients’) to identify their characteristics (typology and political party), their connection to the hoaxes they disseminate, and their relationship. The sample ( N = 374) comprises the false information verified by PolitiFact on the 2024 U.S. presidential elections. The results show that issuers openly use disinformation as a deliberate communicative strategy during electoral campaign. However, those who spread disinformation are more readily identifiable than those who receive it. While the dissemination of false messages is not exclusive to any one party, there are significant variations in its intensity—most notably with greater prevalence among Republican actors. Second, disinformation is predominantly used to discredit and undermine political opponents. Innovative uses are also emerging. One of them is the use of falsehoods to bolster support for one’s own candidate, especially in the case of Donald Trump. Finally, there is a statistical relationship between the issuer and the type of channel, topic, and type of disinformation. This research contributes to advancing our understanding of how actors involved in electoral disinformation operate, a topic that has received scarce attention until now.
This article focuses on individual and group activist trajectories in Portugal during and after the 1974 revolution. Paying special attention to the role of places in the mobilization process, the goal is to bridge social movement and revolution literature. I will initially provide a synthesis of how places and activist trajectories are addressed in the study of contention. Then I introduce some examples connecting reflections on activist trajectories with the spatial dimension of places. Finally, the article, revisiting some findings of my own long-term research on activist trajectories across regimes, tries to point out some axes of dialogue between social movement and revolution theories, through the lens of activist trajectories across regimes and places.
Smiles are not monolithic behaviors; they function in multiple ways by signaling affiliative intent, in turn lubricating the social interactions that provide the basis for group formation and maintenance. While smiles may be characterized by the muscles involved, how strongly they are contracted, and their timing, context influences both the likelihood of specific types of smiles occurring and how they are interpreted while serving the social functions of broadening-and-building coalitions and maintaining-and-managing hierarchies. To better understand the relationship between political followers and their leaders in the United States, we consider the relationship between presidential vote intent, political identity, and political ideology and the expected rationale for smiles (enhancing social bonding or managing social hierarchies) using a nationally representative survey of 1,385 U.S. residents. Findings suggest there are distinct differences in candidate voter preferences regarding smiles based upon political identity.
The purpose of this quantitative study is to examine the relationship between African American medical students’ sense of belonging (SOB) and three theory-driven determinants—relational consistency, navigational capacity, and identity-affirming cues—using data from a multi-institutional survey of graduate and professional students in the United States. The study further explores whether these relationships differ based on undergraduate institutional origin, comparing students who earned their bachelor’s degrees from historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and predominantly White institutions. Findings reveal that all three mechanisms are positively associated with SOB in the expected direction, with relational consistency and navigational capacity exerting stronger effects among HBCU-educated students. Implications for policy, practice, and future research in medical education are discussed.
This study aims to examine the relationship between the revenues of major European football clubs and the level of public attention they generate. The central objective is to assess to what extent digital visibility, measured through Google Trends, is associated with the evolution of revenues reported in the Deloitte Football Money League. Revenue data from Real Madrid, Manchester United, Bayern Munich, and AC Milan were analyzed for the period 2003 to 2024. Attention was measured using the average Google Trends indices per season (July-June). To address issues of non-stationarity, revenue growth rates and simple variations in Google Trends were employed. Ordinary Least Squares regression models were estimated for each club using observations from 2005 to 2024. The results show a positive and statistically significant relationship between digital attention and revenues in the cases of Real Madrid (coef. = 1.03; p < .05) and AC Milan (coef. = 2.12; p < .01). In contrast, no significant relationship was found for Manchester United and Bayern Munich. These findings suggest differences in the extent to which revenues depend on attention, potentially linked to structural and market factors. The evidence indicates that, in certain contexts, the ability of clubs to attract and sustain digital attention constitutes a relevant determinant of revenue. Consequently, the strategic management of visibility and communication emerges as a key component of the economic sustainability of sports organizations. This research offers an innovative approach by incorporating Google Trends data into the analysis of football club revenues. It provides empirical evidence of the correlation between digital attention and revenues, contributing a comparative perspective across different institutional contexts within European football.
How are elites able to capture a state and offshore exorbitant ill-gotten gains for years, with relative impunity, and with complicity from financial institutions? The conventional ontology of territory provides a possible clue: criminalized sovereignty. Both state and non-state organized criminal activities involve systemic corruption. They then exploit the logic of transnational mobility to launder illicit gains offshore. Yet, by design, state capture differs from non-state organized criminal activities insofar as it is premised on leveraging the instruments of state and rule by law to create an aura of legitimacy for looted state assets by embedding them in the licit global economy. As a proof of concept this article compares the Azerbaijani, PDVSA, and Russian state capture laundromats with money laundering patterns associated with non-state organized criminal activity. Although state capture laundromats share characteristics commonly associated with transnational organized criminal activities and both avail themselves of professional enablers to legitimate illicit gains, state capture laundering networks prove comparatively resilient to detection, despite laundering vast sums at scale. Anti-money laundering regimes do not account for this epistemology of transnational mobility under ontological conditions where territorial sovereignty is criminalized systematically.
This study examines how Turkish newspapers with divergent ideological orientations-Yeni & Scedil;afak, Sabah, S & ouml;zc & uuml;, and Evrensel-construct Elon Musk and Donald Trump as symbolic figures within Turkey's polarized media system. Drawing on 144 news and opinion pieces, the research employs an integrated qualitative design that combines systematic content analysis with discourse-historical analysis to investigate how global technological elites are domesticated within national moral and ideological frameworks. The analysis follows a hierarchical coding strategy encompassing evaluative tone, thematic framing, discursive strategy, and moral valence, ensuring analytical consistency through intercoder reliability and multi-level triangulation. Findings reveal a polarized yet morally coherent media field. Pro-government outlets frame Musk and Trump as embodiments of rational modernity and entrepreneurial sovereignty, while oppositional newspapers depict them as symbols of capitalist spectacle and inequality. Across ideological divides, technology itself is moralized-either celebrated as virtue or condemned as vice-demonstrating that Turkish journalism constructs technological modernity as a moral and political category rather than a neutral domain of progress. The study introduces the concept of the 'Musk Effect' to capture how transnational technological elites function as discursive instruments through which semi-peripheral nations negotiate soft power, legitimacy, and modernity. Situated at the intersection of celebrity politics, digital diplomacy, and platform capitalism, the analysis highlights the methodological value of multi-layered qualitative triangulation in revealing the ideological work of media discourse in contemporary techno-politics.
This study examines how partisan and non-partisan news outlets shape public sentiment and democratic resilience through their coverage of economic issues during President Trump's first 100 days in office (January 20-April 30, 2025). Focusing on domestic inflation (notably egg price spikes) and international tariffs, we employ computational content analysis and statistical modeling to analyze and compare news content and audience responses from The New York Times (NYT), Newsweek (NW), and Fox News (Fox). Our findings reveal that while Fox consistently adopted a more favorable tone toward Trump's economic policies and the NYT and NW were more critical, these tonal differences did not result in deeply entrenched affective polarization in economic coverage. However, partisan outlets fostered strong emotional alignment among their audiences, amplifying negative sentiment and emotional cohesion, especially during economic shocks and major political events. Fear appeals and anger-driven framing intensified public grievances, narrowed the gap between media narratives and public opinion, and reduced space for dissent. These dynamics expose how emotionally charged coverage can limit constructive deliberation and potentially polarize public opinions. This study contributes to the literature by highlighting the nuanced role of media in economic policy debates and underscores the need for responsible journalistic practices to safeguard democratic deliberation.
Spanish women finally surpassed the 40% threshold of political representation in 2008. Yet, despite this progress, they continue to face unequal media visibility and have increasingly turned to social media to enhance their public presence. Although research shows that women are as active as men online, men's posts tend to have greater reach and influence, revealing persistent gender disparities. This article examines how these differences manifest in the X (formerly Twitter) communication of the leading male (first-position) and female (second-position) candidates from the five parties with the largest parliamentary representation during Spain's November 2019 general election. This election was historically significant as feminism featured prominently in the campaign agenda. Paradoxically, however, all five parties selected men as their first-position candidates and women as their seconds, thereby reproducing traditional gender hierarchies within an explicitly feminist context. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study analyses candidates' presence and thematic focus during the campaign's second and final week, the period of highest communicative intensity. The quantitative results revealed a significant gender imbalance, with female candidates contributing only one-fourth of the total activity. While male candidates primarily generated content, female candidates mostly shared posts from their male counterparts. Female candidates thus played a secondary role, mainly supporting male candidates' tweets and occasionally addressing issues concerning women as a group. By adhering to topics already addressed by male candidates, these female candidates may have aimed to avoid criticism for stepping outside conventional roles, thereby illustrating the constraints imposed by the double bind. The study highlights the persistent prioritisation of male politicians' messages in political discourse and suggests that female candidates' reduced activity may stem from gender constraints.
The U.S. State Department estimates that 9 million nationals live abroad, with the American presence in the Iberian Peninsula growing sharply since 2015. In Spain, the U.S. population in 2024 stood at 138% of its 2020 level, while in Portugal it had reached 439% of its 2020 level. These communities, increasingly significant in size and organization, have become active sites of partisan mobilization during U.S. electoral cycles. This article examines the political transnationalism of Americans residing in Spain and Portugal, focusing on how processes of political resocialization-through exposure and transference-shape their engagement with U.S. politics during the 2024 election campaign. Drawing on a virtual survey disseminated through partisan committees and diaspora networks, we assess political knowledge, efficacy, interest, participation, and tolerance. Explanatory factors include limited sociodemographic characteristics alongside migration trajectories and variables related to both previously mentioned theories. We employ canonical correlation analysis alongside heliograph visualizations to capture patterns of behavior and enhance interpretability. By situating these dynamics in a context of electoral polarization, the study advances understanding of how non-resident citizens influence and are influenced by transnational political processes and broader debates on democratic quality.
This study examines the legitimacy of political communication within the United States' two-party system, focusing on voters' perceptions of the two major parties, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, and their respective candidates, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, in the 2024 election. The analysis is based on a survey conducted in collaboration with the Emerson College Polling Center, comprising a stratified sample of 1,000 respondents, weighted according to the electoral significance of different regions across the country. The article compares voters' perceptions of the legitimacy of political communication styles among supporters of each party and those of the opposing party. The results reveal substantial differences in levels of tolerance and acceptance of political communication across parties and candidates, as well as notable variation in the degree of perceptual polarization between partisans, candidates, and non-partisans. Drawing on legitimacy theory, the study provides a social interpretation of these differences through tests of proportions. The findings underscore the central role of tolerance in sustaining democratic stability and highlight the prevalence of communicative intolerance in contemporary U.S. society. Finally, this research proposes and empirically tests a quantitative tool for monitoring changes in political polarization across electoral cycles.
