Social cohesion, Twitter and far-right politics in Australia: Diversity in the democratic mediasphere

Abstract

The concept of ‘social cohesion’ has become an orthodoxy in governmental and academic discourse, augmenting the complex of progressive and liberal politics that have formed around the modern, multicultural and globally engaged nation-state. The reinvigoration of far-right politics is challenging this orthodoxy, at least inasmuch as these politics appear to be gaining traction through the strategic manipulation of increasing insecurity within these democratic states. This article examines these challenges conceptually and through an empirical case study. The case study examines the appearance in 2016 of Senator Elect Pauline Hanson on the ABC’s Q&A television programme. The article examines Twitter discourses that were generated around the far-right senator’s appearance on the broadcast programme. The article concludes that ‘social cohesion’ and its role in electoral, participative and deliberative democratic processes is a largely inadequate discursive buttress to the complex of language wars within which the concept is besieged.

Key insights into masculinities and violent extremism from a brief literature review

“…Lewis et al (2017: 31) adopt the definition set out by the Australian government, which suggests that violent extremism consists of the 'beliefs and actions of people who support or use violence to achieve ideological, religious or political goals'. Meanwhile, other academics argue that extremist violence 'can be exercised through discourse, institutions and practices of exclusivism' (Lewis et al 2017: 31, citing Arendt, 1970Zizek 2009;Malešević 2016), and, according to True (2020), violent extremism is characterised by three basic elements, namely: the intention to achieve a cause; the targeting of a large population; and the perpetration of actions that fall outside the bounds of international humanitarian law.…”

Independent publishers and social networks in the 21st century: the balance of power in the transatlantic Spanish-language book market

“…Hence, Twitter has been used to analyze relationship or discussion networks between agents in subjects related to the humanities and social sciences, for example, the global community of DH researchers (Grandjean, 2016), political institutions like the European policy labs (Romero-Frías and Arroyo-Machado, 2018), gender and issue discussion between women (Evans, 2016) or online campaigning and political involvement (Kruikemeier et al , 2016). Elsewhere, research has focused on dialogue arising from specific events such as international academic conferences (Grandjean and Rochat, 2014; Jussila et al , 2014), social events (Beguerisse-Diaz et al , 2014; Casilli and Tubaro, 2012) or political issues (Lewis et al , 2019). The profiles of agents belonging to Twitter communities have also been analyzed, for example, in the case of DH centers (Romero-Frías and Del-Barrio-García, 2014).…”