ABSTRACT

Existing research indicates that the electoral effects of changing house rents depend on political parties’ left-right positioning and adherence to populist ideas. This paper explores the association between house rent increases and voting in Madrid by exploiting the availability of fine-grained data at the census tract-level, and the existence of an electoral arena where parties compete from different positions on crucial dimensions such as populism and the intervention of the state in the economy. In particular, we focus our analysis on non-populist parties of the mainstream left (PSOE) and right (Ciudadanos and PP), a radical right party with a strong neoliberal discourse and inconsistent populist appeals (VOX), and a radical left party that has traditionally adopted a populist discourse (Unidas Podemos). Our main results indicate that house rent increases benefit right-wing parties in neighbourhoods with high ownership rates (economic gain), thus offering an alternative context-dependent mechanism to explain the success of (liberal) radical right parties when house rents rise. They also suggest that house rent increases associate with voting for left-wing parties, especially if they adhere to populist ideas, in neighbourhoods with lower levels of homeownership (economic burden).

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ABSTRACT

The state expands, builds, and consolidates its presence through physical infrastructure. In countries experiencing active armed conflicts, the rationale for infrastructure development varies widely. This article analyses the infrastructure constructed by the Colombian Army in the context of the internal armed conflict, focusing on areas both with and without armed groups. Through fieldwork, interviews, the review and analysis of war plans and primary sources, and empirical data from 354 projects conducted by the Army, we argue that the state’s consolidated or uneven presence influences how the Army perceives infrastructure. Infrastructure is viewed as a tool for combating insurgencies in areas where political authority is challenged or threatened. Conversely, in regions devoid of competition, infrastructure plays a role in state-building during armed conflict. The findings enable us to identify four distinct zones that illustrate this variation. Ultimately, the Colombian experience highlights the diverse aspirations associated with infrastructure, ranging from the pursuit of peace to the struggle for political power.

Enlace: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2452292925000852

The post Publicación: “Building the State, Fighting the rebels. Military engineers and infrastructure in modern Colombia” appeared first on Acpa.

Topic: AI, Public Opinion, and Democratic Resilience.

Submit your extended abstract (1,000 words) by February 15, 2026.

Details: https://academic.oup.com/ijpor/pages/call-for-papers-ai-public-opinion-and-democratic-resilience

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Introducción:  Colombia suele considerarse una de las democracias más estables de América Latina, a pesar de su prolongado conflicto armado. Sin embargo, los ciclos de protesta iniciados en 2019 y reactivados en 2021, marcados por una fuerte represión estatal, pusieron en entredicho esta percepción. Este artículo analiza los factores que explican la participación en estas movilizaciones recientes, con el objetivo de comprender las motivaciones de la acción colectiva en el contexto colombiano.

Materiales y métodos:  Se adopta un enfoque cuantitativo, basado en los datos del Barómetro de las Américas para los años 2018, 2020 y 2021, complementado con análisis contextual. El modelo considera variables individuales, sociales y políticas, con especial atención al impacto de la pandemia de COVID-19 y al desgaste del gobierno de Iván Duque.

Resultados:  El análisis revela que la participación en protestas está fuertemente asociada con la evaluación negativa del gobierno, la participación en reuniones políticas y la identificación ideológica con el partido Colombia Humana. No se observaron asociaciones significativas con desapego democrático, confianza interpersonal o religiosidad. El perfil predominante de los manifestantes incluye jóvenes, hombres, con educación superior, alineados con la izquierda y políticamente activos.

Discusión:  Las protestas de 2019 y 2021 no constituyen un rechazo al régimen democrático, sino una impugnación dirigida al gobierno de turno. La investigación señala la necesidad de explicaciones multicausales de la acción colectiva, articulando teorías de redes sociales, elección racional y estructuras de oportunidad política. Se propone, así, un enfoque de nivel meso, centrado en el papel del capital social organizado, en contraste con interpretaciones puramente individuales o estructurales.

Revista de Sociologia e Política

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The post Publicación: “Urban jungle, radical roar: sprawl, economic decline and the success of populist radical right in metropolitan Spain” appeared first on Acpa.

“Stop the steal”: misinformation correction and misperceptions about election fraud”

Abstract
Purpose
The two primary purposes of the current study are to further understand the impact of corrective messages on misperceptions about election fraud in the US and to test the effect of party affiliation of the accused politician on participants’ election misperceptions.

Design/methodology/approach
To assess these relationships, we conducted a between-subjects randomized online experiment.

Findings
Our results show that participants in the control condition held higher misperceptions than those who were exposed to a correction message. Findings also showed that liberal media use was negatively associated with election fraud misperceptions, while conservative media use, information from Donald Trump, authoritarianism and self-reported conservatives were positively associated with election fraud misperceptions.

Originality/value
Experimental test to understand election fraud misperceptions, using our own original stimulus materials.

Read it here:
- https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/oir-08-2024-0512/full/html
- Full Text (ResearchGate)

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“Social Media Democracy Mirage How Social Media News Fuels a Politically Uninformed Participatory Democracy”

Summary
For over two decades, political communication research has hailed the potentially reinvigorating effect of social media on democracy. Social media was expected to provide new opportunities for people to learn about politics and public affairs, and to participate politically. Building on two systematic literature reviews on social media, and its effects on political participation and knowledge (2000–2020), and introducing empirical evidence drawing on four original US survey data that expands for over a decade (2009–2020), this Element contends that social media has only partially fulfilled this tenet, producing a Social Media Democracy Mirage. That is, social media have led to a socio-political paradox in which people are more participatory than ever, yet not necessarily more informed.

Read it here for free (until December 18): https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009053266

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“Seeking justice on social media: Funas as a localized form of Latin American youth activism”

Abstract
A funa, a public denouncement aimed at raising moral condemnation of a person accused of perpetrating a crime or injustice, has become a major digital activism instrument in Latin America, particularly in Chile. Originated in the human rights movement in the 1990s, funas re-emerged as a new form of online activism that hybridized with a Latin American and historical form of protest to exert informal justice through social media. Drawing on a face-to-face survey of Chilean youth aged 18–29 years, we examine the factors that explain young people’s attitudes and behaviors regarding funas. We find that funas are gendered, with issues like sexual harassment and misconduct being the primary subject of funas. We also show that women hold more positive views about funas and are more likely to engage in online funas. Finally, our findings indicate that individuals who trust the judicial system are less likely to share funas on social media.

Read it here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14614448241283943

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“Geographical and gender inequalities in health sciences studies: testing differences in research productivity, impact and visibility”

Abstract
Purpose
Gender and geographical imbalance in production and impact levels is a pressing issue in global knowledge production. Within Health Sciences, while some studies found stark gender and geographical biases and inequalities, others found little empirical evidence of this marginalization. The purpose of the study is to clear the ambiguity concerning the topic.

Design/methodology/approach
Based on a comprehensive and systematic analysis of Health Sciences research data downloaded from the Scival (Scopus/Scimago) database from 2017 to 2020 (n = 7,990), this study first compares gender representation in research productivity, as well as differences in terms of citation per document, citations per document view and view per document scores according to geographical location. Additionally, the study clarifies whether there is a geographic bias in productivity and impact measures (i.e. citation per document, citations per document view and view per document) moderated by gender.

Findings
Results indicate that gender inequalities in productivity are systematic at the overall disciplinary, as well as the subfield levels. Findings also suggest statistically significant geographical differences in citation per document, citations per document view, and view per document scores, and interaction effect of gender over the relation between geography and (1) the number of citations per view and (2) the number of views per document.

Originality/value
This study contributes to scientometric studies in health sciences by providing insightful findings about the geographical and gender bias in productivity and impact across world regions.

Read it here: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/OIR-10-2022-0541/full/html

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“Tuning Out (Political and Science) News? A Selective Exposure Study of the News Finds Me Perception”

Abstract
Individuals harboring perceptions that the “news will find me” (NFM) tend to be less active consuming traditional media, preferring news online and on social media. NFM has also been linked with lower political knowledge and political participation over time. What remains to be seen, however, is whether high-NFM individuals are in fact less likely to expose themselves to news once they do encounter it online. This preregistered study fills this gap in the literature by unobtrusively logging selection behaviors while U.S. adults browsed a mock news website featuring various hard and soft news stories. Consistent with our hypothesizing, NFM was associated with greater exposure to soft news. Additionally, we examined whether genre-specific NFM beliefs would predict less exposure to those news genres. We found support for this hypothesis in the context of science news, but for political news, this relationship depended on the news stories presented.

Read it here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00936502231215528

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