The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society

In 1974 an article appeared in Science magazine with the dry-sounding title “Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases” by a pair of psychologists who were not well known outside their discipline of decision theory. In it Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman introduced the world to Prospect Theory, which mapped out how humans actually behave when faced with decisions about gains and losses, in contrast to how economists assumed that people behave. Prospect Theory turned Economics on its head by demonstrating through a series of ingenious experiments that people are much more concerned with losses than they are with gains, and that framing a choice from one perspective or the other will result in decisions that are exactly the opposite of each other, even if the outcomes are monetarily the same. Prospect Theory led cognitive psychology in a new direction that began to uncover other human biases in thinking that are probably not learned but are part of our brain’s wiring.

Thinking fast and slow.

NUDGE: IMPROVING DECISIONS ABOUT HEALTH, WEALTH, AND HAPPINESS by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein Penguin Books, 2009, 312 pp, ISBN 978-0-14-311526-7This book is best described formally as a general explanation of and advocacy for libertarian paternalism, a term coined by the authors in earlier publications. Informally, it is about how leaders, systems, organizations, and governments can nudge people to do the things the nudgers want and need done for the betterment of the nudgees, or of society. It is paternalism in the sense that "it is legitimate for choice architects to try to influence people's behavior in order to make their lives longer, healthier, and better", (p. 5) It is libertarian in that "people should be free to do what they like - and to opt out of undesirable arrangements if they want to do so", (p. 5) The built-in possibility of opting out or making a different choice preserves freedom of choice even though people's behavior has been influenced by the nature of the presentation of the information or by the structure of the decisionmaking system. I had never heard of libertarian paternalism before reading this book, and I now find it fascinating.Written for a general audience, this book contains mostly social and behavioral science theory and models, but there is considerable discussion of structure and process that has roots in mathematical and quantitative modeling. One of the main applications of this social system is economic choice in investing, selecting and purchasing products and services, systems of taxes, banking (mortgages, borrowing, savings), and retirement systems. Other quantitative social choice systems discussed include environmental effects, health care plans, gambling, and organ donations. Softer issues that are also subject to a nudge-based approach are marriage, education, eating, drinking, smoking, influence, spread of information, and politics. There is something in this book for everyone.The basis for this libertarian paternalism concept is in the social theory called "science of choice", the study of the design and implementation of influence systems on various kinds of people. The terms Econs and Humans, are used to refer to people with either considerable or little rational decision-making talent, respectively. The various libertarian paternalism concepts and systems presented are tested and compared in light of these two types of people. Two foundational issues that this book has in common with another book, Network of Echoes: Imitation, Innovation and Invisible Leaders, that was also reviewed for this issue of the Journal are that 1 ) there are two modes of thinking (or components of the brain) - an automatic (intuitive) process and a reflective (rational) process and 2) the need for conformity and the desire for imitation are powerful forces in human behavior. …

Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness

Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy

Symposium Review: 25th Anniversary of Moral Boundaries by Joan Tronto

How might we describe the development of online deliberation as a field of research and practice? How should we interpret its significance? In this introductory essay to the Special Issue, we argue...

Under Construction: The Field of Online Deliberation Research

New methods to analyse social media data provide a powerful way to know publics and capture what they say and do. At the same time, access to these methods is uneven, with corporations and governments tending to have best access to relevant data and analytics tools. Critics raise a number of concerns about the implications dominant uses of data mining and analytics may have for the public: they result in less privacy, more surveillance and social discrimination, and they provide new ways of controlling how publics come to be represented and so understood. In this paper, we consider if a different relationship between the public and data mining might be established, one in which publics might be said to have greater agency and reflexivity vis-a`-vis data power. Drawing on growing calls for alternative data regimes and practices, we argue that to enable this different relationship, data mining and analytics need to be democratised in three ways: they should be subject to greater public supervision and regulation, available and accessible to all, and used to create not simply known but reflexive, active and knowing publics. We therefore imagine conditions in which data mining is not just used as a way to know publics, but can become a means for publics to know themselves.

/pdf/known-or-knowing-publics-social-media-data-mining-and-the-1m6x5u83o5.pdf

Known or knowing publics? Social media data mining and the question of public agency:

Research Highlights and AbstractThis articleCritically reviews e-democracy policy thinking in the UK.Surveys and evaluates e-democracy activity in key areas, including online forums, open governmen...

Deliberative Manoeuvres in the Digital Darkness: e‐Democracy Policy in the UK

This paper examines blogs by three senior politicians as examples of governing at a distance. It considers how the translation of policy messages might be supported by what Scannell has called the 'for-everyone-as-someone' structure of communication. Three communicative characteristics of the blogs are considered: politicians' attempts to seem like ordinary people; their efforts to manage time and appear spontaneous; and their claims to be conversing with and listening to the public. The paper concludes by raising questions about the consequences of digitally mediated intimacy for democratic representation.

Governing at a distance - politicians in the blogosphere

The objective of this paper is to focus on the branding strategies used in the pharmaceutical industry and compare them to some of the best practice seen in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) area. First the authors review the differences in the way branding is defined and organised in pharmaceuticals and FMCG and identify why branding could be leveraged in the pharmaceutical industry to help it return to strong growth in the future. Secondly, the authors analyse in detail what branding strategies are currently used within pharmaceuticals and contrast these with the practice in FMCG. The areas covered include the choice of brand name strategies, the level of brand globalisation, the use of brand extension and the subject of co-branding. Based on this benchmarking, the authors offer recommendations to guide future brand development successfully in the pharmaceutical industry.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1057%2Fpalgrave.bm.2540182.pdf

Giles Moss

Papers

Under Construction: The Field of Online Deliberation Research

Known or knowing publics? Social media data mining and the question of public agency:

Deliberative Manoeuvres in the Digital Darkness: e‐Democracy Policy in the UK

Governing at a distance - politicians in the blogosphere

How different are branding strategies in the pharmaceutical industry and the fast-moving consumer goods sector?