Georgiana Bigea - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Georgiana Bigea
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Dec 31, 2022
Conflict Studies Quarterly
The impact of new media on polarization and of social media on populist messaging is as poorly un... more The impact of new media on polarization and of social media on populist messaging is as poorly understood as it is widely debated every time that a violent incident occurs. The 2017 Unite the Right rally from Charlottesville has turned into violent con lict through everyday individuals transforming into ighters. Our goal was to ind out why, by doing a con lict analysis of the events. The literature review as well as the events leading up to the rally have shown that new media has a polarization-intensi ication effect on the con lict parties, independent from partisan politics or media bias. To study this phenomenon deeper and to ind out how it led to violence, we employed Randall Collins' escalation model. Then in the second part, we focused the research on social media and its role in the events, with the help of Bernard Mayer's triangle of con lict and root cause model. Our indings were that new media-exacerbated polarization and social media were the primary tools for instigation and escalation, which transformed the con lict from potential to actualized. While the irst fostered the element of group solidarity, the second provided resource for mobilization. We consider this research valuable in the ield of con lict studies insofar as this type of con lict analysis is an important tool to detangle the invisible interconnected strings that characterize modern con licts. Interdisciplinary exploration is recommended in the future, with the bene it of gaining a holistic perspective that is more faithful to the dynamic nature of reality.
Perhaps only in the time of the crusades the Western rhetoric has been more concerned with the pe... more Perhaps only in the time of the crusades the Western rhetoric has been more concerned with the people of Muslim origin. With the Middle East turned into a warring zone by various factions , and the Western world scared of the menace Islamic extremists present, the subject discussed in our paper is very timely. Thousands of people have led to ight alongside extremist organizations such as ISIS, European far-right parties are on the rise and refugees are washing off the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. But no Western country is under greater distress than France with its nation troubled by terrorist attacks and by the latest outburst of protests. Analyzing the legal framework within which the French Model of integrating immigrants works, we attempted to assess its effectiveness and lack thereof, in order to try and explain why France is only preceded by Russia when it comes to the number of Westerners joining the rows of ISIL. Our indings include clear evidence about the low quality of life that people of immigrant descent have, the lack of possibilities to overcome their condition, the lack of sustainability that the model exhibits and the escalating effect that the current State of Emergency has on it all. And since all of these constitute drivers for extremism, we consider France to be in urgent need of policy developments that would slow down and even stop the radicalizing trends that we believe are in motion.
Conference Presentations by Georgiana Bigea
Conference Proceedings International Conference on Conflict Studies, 2022
The size of the Romanian diaspora is comparable to a quarter of the country's population. A perce... more The size of the Romanian diaspora is comparable to a quarter of the country's population. A percentage of these people return home. Among educated individuals, the preferred destinations are the more prosperous countries, where there are embedded customs of climate change tackling, through household waste sorting and other such behaviors. Changing behaviors is not easy, and in this case this might be beneficial, if the former-migrants continue to practice this habit upon return. On the other hand, most educated individuals have access to information and can have their opinions shaped by it. The questions are, do the persons who have lived abroad adopt a more eco-friendly behavior than those who have not? Do they practice household waste sorting more or less than when they used to live abroad? Is there a conflict of attitudes, behaviors, or contradictions between the two categories and the public authorities? The results show that even though the behaviors of the two groups do not show discrepancy, their attitudes and level of contradiction with the authorities are different.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Dec 31, 2022
Conflict Studies Quarterly
The impact of new media on polarization and of social media on populist messaging is as poorly un... more The impact of new media on polarization and of social media on populist messaging is as poorly understood as it is widely debated every time that a violent incident occurs. The 2017 Unite the Right rally from Charlottesville has turned into violent con lict through everyday individuals transforming into ighters. Our goal was to ind out why, by doing a con lict analysis of the events. The literature review as well as the events leading up to the rally have shown that new media has a polarization-intensi ication effect on the con lict parties, independent from partisan politics or media bias. To study this phenomenon deeper and to ind out how it led to violence, we employed Randall Collins' escalation model. Then in the second part, we focused the research on social media and its role in the events, with the help of Bernard Mayer's triangle of con lict and root cause model. Our indings were that new media-exacerbated polarization and social media were the primary tools for instigation and escalation, which transformed the con lict from potential to actualized. While the irst fostered the element of group solidarity, the second provided resource for mobilization. We consider this research valuable in the ield of con lict studies insofar as this type of con lict analysis is an important tool to detangle the invisible interconnected strings that characterize modern con licts. Interdisciplinary exploration is recommended in the future, with the bene it of gaining a holistic perspective that is more faithful to the dynamic nature of reality.
Perhaps only in the time of the crusades the Western rhetoric has been more concerned with the pe... more Perhaps only in the time of the crusades the Western rhetoric has been more concerned with the people of Muslim origin. With the Middle East turned into a warring zone by various factions , and the Western world scared of the menace Islamic extremists present, the subject discussed in our paper is very timely. Thousands of people have led to ight alongside extremist organizations such as ISIS, European far-right parties are on the rise and refugees are washing off the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. But no Western country is under greater distress than France with its nation troubled by terrorist attacks and by the latest outburst of protests. Analyzing the legal framework within which the French Model of integrating immigrants works, we attempted to assess its effectiveness and lack thereof, in order to try and explain why France is only preceded by Russia when it comes to the number of Westerners joining the rows of ISIL. Our indings include clear evidence about the low quality of life that people of immigrant descent have, the lack of possibilities to overcome their condition, the lack of sustainability that the model exhibits and the escalating effect that the current State of Emergency has on it all. And since all of these constitute drivers for extremism, we consider France to be in urgent need of policy developments that would slow down and even stop the radicalizing trends that we believe are in motion.
Conference Proceedings International Conference on Conflict Studies, 2022
The size of the Romanian diaspora is comparable to a quarter of the country's population. A perce... more The size of the Romanian diaspora is comparable to a quarter of the country's population. A percentage of these people return home. Among educated individuals, the preferred destinations are the more prosperous countries, where there are embedded customs of climate change tackling, through household waste sorting and other such behaviors. Changing behaviors is not easy, and in this case this might be beneficial, if the former-migrants continue to practice this habit upon return. On the other hand, most educated individuals have access to information and can have their opinions shaped by it. The questions are, do the persons who have lived abroad adopt a more eco-friendly behavior than those who have not? Do they practice household waste sorting more or less than when they used to live abroad? Is there a conflict of attitudes, behaviors, or contradictions between the two categories and the public authorities? The results show that even though the behaviors of the two groups do not show discrepancy, their attitudes and level of contradiction with the authorities are different.