About this Research Topic

Background

Power relations affect how we understand our surroundings and the world around us. They lead to ignoring the benefits of the development of long-term and inclusive citizen participation, debates, and the development of inclusive societies. They also promote divisions in societies, which may be in the social and political interests of various actors. What kind of power relations are there, who is connected to them, and how? How should their effects be determined, researched, and evaluated?

This Research Topic shares knowledge on power relations in various sectors of the society. Power relations affect political participation by making some actors appear credible while others are framed as being less so. Thus, some actors and their viewpoints may be left without any legitimacy due to power relations. Sustaining power relations is in the interest of the gatekeeper actors, who aim to control debates and their outcomes in policy making. Having various voices and viewpoints in debates is thus not in the interest of gatekeepers. This narrows the social and political arenas, which only a few control. This creates sub-arenas where various truths are debated and decisions on realities are created. However, various newer and alternative communication channels such as social media and activism can aid in breaking power relations, but also in creating new ones.

Power relations also connect to gender, race and other categories of discrimination due to some actors active and passive framing. Othering, for instance, is used to create discriminative realities where minorities are actively framed as less credible by the gatekeepers in order to sustain the status quo in debates and decision making.

The Research Topic welcomes new and unpublished empirical and theoretical research papers that addressed social and political power relations. It intends to bring together a wide range of perspectives, empirical and theoretical, qualitative, and quantitative, which draw on methods and approaches from across disciplines.

Papers on societal and political power relations can be related to, but not limited to power relations in the fields of culture, history, human rights, youth, education, digital technologies, design, media, journalism, gaming, and politics. Multidisciplinary, explorative research and discussion papers are welcome. This Research Topic aims to examine the role(s) of various actors and the power relations they create and sustain while preventing others from influencing these relations.

Keywords: power relations, citizen participation, inclusive societies, agenda setting, policy making, inclusion, empirical, theoretical

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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