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1 – 10 of over 2000Populism is one of the main symptoms of the contemporary crisis in Europe. How can the rise of populism best be understood? Whereas existing analyses predominantly utilise…
Abstract
Populism is one of the main symptoms of the contemporary crisis in Europe. How can the rise of populism best be understood? Whereas existing analyses predominantly utilise rationalist and behaviouralist approaches and focus on political, economic and cultural interests, this contribution proposes a different approach. The author focusses on affects and emotions. The author shows that where other parties or political movements opt for rational and dispassionate debates on merits of political programmes, populists instead offer, invoke and respond to strong emotions across multiple political settings. Emotions feed and propel populism in its bid for power by forming collective identities through the clustering of love for ‘us’ and hate for the ‘other’.
Ontological Security Theory (OST) is used here as a framework for understanding populist behaviour in the sphere of security perception, identification and community-building. In recent debates, OST has been used because it allows the motives for certain behaviours to be located in the need to maintain or recreate positive identity constructed via biographical narratives. OST suggests that any lack of narrative continuity regarding the shape of the self-images for both individual and collective identities will therefore constitute a source of ontological threat; the lack of a sense of security. In this contribution, the author uses the examples of populist policies and discourses in Hungary and Poland that illustrate this dynamic to analyse the past- and future-oriented collective identifications underpinning the recent rise of populism in Europe.
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Drawing on Shakespeare, and in particular Hamlet's psychological crisis, this paper examines the relationship between emotions and meaning, a key theme in artistic work since…
Abstract
Drawing on Shakespeare, and in particular Hamlet's psychological crisis, this paper examines the relationship between emotions and meaning, a key theme in artistic work since Aristotle but, it is argued, largely ignored in psychology and the social sciences. Now, however, against a background of international terrorism, lessons are being learned from literature's insights.
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Mostafa Kamal Hassan and Samar Mouakket
The purpose of this paper is to explore political behaviours associated with the implementation of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system in a public service organisation…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore political behaviours associated with the implementation of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system in a public service organisation from an emerging market country, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Design/methodology/approach
The authors’ theoretical framework is based on the notions of trust, agent reflexivity, ontological security, routines, control and power proposed by Giddens (1984, 1990). The authors explore how the political behaviour of organisation members emanates from the introduction of an ERP system (particularly its accounting modules), and how the interaction between individual power, trust and control shaped its implementation process. The case study methodology relied on diverse data collection methods including semi-structured interviews, documentary evidence and personal observation.
Findings
The authors show that the accounting-based ERP system created an episode of discomfort in the organisation, which facilitated reflexivity and critical reflection by organisation members and led to a re-assessment of ways of thinking pre- and post-dating the implementation of the ERP system. The findings illustrate the entangled relationship between the new accounting-based ERP system and the feelings of trust emerging during organisational change.
Practical implications
Although case studies are intrinsically limited in terms of generalisability, the authors’ investigation provides practical insights into the management of the needs of trust, ontological security and sources of power experienced by organisation members, since the fulfilment of such needs is the underlying pillar which the success of ERP systems rests upon.
Originality/value
This study is one of the first to apply Giddens’ (1984, 1990) conceptualisation to examine organisation change caused by the implementation of an accounting-based ERP system in an emerging market economy.
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Naples, Italy in the last decade has become a destination for Ukrainian migrants escaping the economic uncertainty of their homeland. A sign of the city's importance in the…
Abstract
Purpose
Naples, Italy in the last decade has become a destination for Ukrainian migrants escaping the economic uncertainty of their homeland. A sign of the city's importance in the diaspora is that the Ukrainian government in 2008 opened a local consulate. Estimates are that nearly a million Ukrainians have used Italy as a point of labour transit, even if only a fifth of those are formally registered. The purpose of this paper is to examine the strategies with which Ukrainian migrants in Naples, Italy attempt to create ontological security in the context of informal economies and the uncertainties of the migratory process.
Design/methodology/approach
The research is based on 18 months of ethnographic close observation and participation in migrant networks in Naples between 2004 and 2008.
Findings
The research reveals the strategies used by Ukrainian migrants to arrange and maintain transnational connections, seek work, and develop a sense of belonging through place‐making and institutional development in the face of the significant barriers to inclusion and socio‐economic stability in Neapolitan society.
Practical implications
The evidence suggests that policymakers concerned with social cohesion and integration might wish to consider informal economic activities not simply as a “problem” to resolve but a key feature of contemporary capitalism that may create the conditions to address their concerns. Therefore, a more nuanced understanding of how migrants create their lives through these activities would be useful.
Originality/value
This ethnographic material suggests that greater attention should be paid to the creative capacities of migrants to create a sense of security through informal activities. Migrants make extensive use of social networks and knowledge distribution to form the basis of decisions about economic behaviour, emplacement and ontological security.
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Stefan Fenz, Stefanie Plieschnegger and Heidi Hobel
The purpose of this paper is to increase the degree of automation within information security compliance projects by introducing a formal representation of the ISO 27002 standard…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to increase the degree of automation within information security compliance projects by introducing a formal representation of the ISO 27002 standard. As information is becoming more valuable and the current businesses face frequent attacks on their infrastructure, enterprises need support at protecting their information-based assets.
Design/methodology/approach
Information security standards and guidelines provide baseline knowledge for protecting corporate assets. However, the efforts to check whether the implemented measures of an organization adhere to the proposed standards and guidelines are still significantly high.
Findings
This paper shows how the process of compliance checking can be supported by using machine-readable ISO 27002 control descriptions in combination with a formal representation of the organization’s assets.
Originality/value
The authors created a formal representation of the ISO 27002 standard and showed how a security ontology can be used to increase the efficiency of the compliance checking process.
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Daniela Leonardi and Silvia Stefani
Considering the case study presented, the purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of the pandemic in local services for homeless people. Drawing from the concept of…
Abstract
Purpose
Considering the case study presented, the purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of the pandemic in local services for homeless people. Drawing from the concept of ontological security, it will be discussed how different services’ levels of “housing adequacy” shaped remarkably different experiences of the pandemic for homeless people and social workers in terms of health protection and agency.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper focuses on a case study concerning homeless services for people during the COVID-19 pandemic in the metropolitan and suburban area of Turin, in Northern Italy. In-depth interviews with social workers and participant observation during online meetings of workers from the shelters constitute the empirical data that have been collected during the first wave of the pandemic in Italy.
Findings
According to the findings, the pandemic showed shelters as unsafe places that reduce homeless people’s decision power and separate them from the rest of the citizenship. Instead, Housing First projects emerged as imore inclusive and safermore inclusive and safer spaces, able to enhance people’s power over their own lives. The pandemic did not create emerging issues in the homeless services system or discontinuities: rather, it amplified pre-existing problematic aspects.
Originality/value
The case study presented provides empirical insights to recognise at the political and organisational level the importance of housing as a measure of individual and collective security, calling for an intervention to tackle homelessness in terms of housing policies rather than exclusively social and emergency treatment.
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