Europe recently played victim to various acts of Islamic terrorism. Multiple attacks on different targets put European countries in fear for more attacks, making some Europeans anxious about the...Show moreEurope recently played victim to various acts of Islamic terrorism. Multiple attacks on different targets put European countries in fear for more attacks, making some Europeans anxious about the flow of refugees coming to Europe. However, most terrorist appear to be 2nd or 3rd generation migrants, making Europe’s terrorist threat mostly an home grown issue. This article tries to broaden the knowledge about home-grown radicalization in Europe by analyzing the root causes of radicalization as they are present in society, and by comparing the Dutch and Belgian society subsequently.Show less
This thesis is a comparative case study on the reasons behind the negative European attitudes toward refugees in both the post-WWII European Refugee Crisis and the 21st-Century European Refugee...Show moreThis thesis is a comparative case study on the reasons behind the negative European attitudes toward refugees in both the post-WWII European Refugee Crisis and the 21st-Century European Refugee Crisis. By comparing the two crises it needs to become clear whether there is continuity in the negative European attitude toward refugees. The comparison mainly focusses on three real-world concerns: national security, national identity, and economic livelihood.Show less
This thesis is a study of Dogespeak, which can be positioned within the field of Internet linguistics, the study of Internet language, which can vary from different online dialects or languages to...Show moreThis thesis is a study of Dogespeak, which can be positioned within the field of Internet linguistics, the study of Internet language, which can vary from different online dialects or languages to the way language is used on the Internet. Dogespeak is an Internet dialect which involves the breaking of and deviating from the grammar rules of Standard English to create a recognizable and humorous language. Dogespeak, which is expressed through so-called Doge-memes, can be compared to LOLspeak, another Internet dialect. In the field of Internet linguistics, there have been previous studies into LOLspeak whereas Dogespeak, as far as I have been able to ascertain, has not been studied before. The aim of this thesis is to fill this gap. To facilitate my research into Dogespeak grammar a spreadsheet containing the characteristics of Dogespeak has been created, which was analysed according to Glaser and Strauss’ Grounded Theory. The Doge-memes research data was collected from websites like 9gag.com, Reddit.com and Imgur.com. From the analysis of the grammar used in the studied Doge-memes it can be concluded that the grammar of Dogespeak is the opposite of the grammar of Standard English, where words which cannot be combined in Standard English are used for forming phrases in Dogespeak. Dogespeak was also compared to LOLspeak, but this showed more differences than similarities from a linguistic point of view. This study could be used as a basis for future studies regarding Internet dialects or for further research into Dogespeak.Show less
This paper examines the impact of democratization on the social spending behavior of Indonesia and the Philippines. Comparing social spending as a percentage of central government spending and as a...Show moreThis paper examines the impact of democratization on the social spending behavior of Indonesia and the Philippines. Comparing social spending as a percentage of central government spending and as a share of GDP over a period of approximately ten years before and after democratization, one can’t observe a significant change in the social policy priorities of politicians. Although theory would suggest that democratization would increase the awareness of politicians to focus more on the social well-being of its citizen, investments in human capital remained largely unchanged. This paper argues that the persistence of elites, both at national and local level, prevents a substantial change in social spending to materialize. Drawn from several empirical studies and secondary literature, this paper shows how the rent-seeking attitudes of elites translates into a major burden for lower-class groups to enter the political domain and to change social policy (spending) to their favor.Show less
