[go: up one dir, main page]

Skip to main content

A Multimodal Digital Humanities Study of Terrorism in Swedish Politics: An Interdisciplinary Mixed Methods Project on the Configuration of Terrorism in Parliamentary Debates, Legislation, and Policy Networks 1968–2018

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Intelligent Systems and Applications (IntelliSys 2021)

Abstract

This paper presents the design of one of Sweden’s largest digital humanities projects, SweTerror, that through an interdisciplinary multi-modal methodological approach develops an extensive speech-to-text digital HSS resource. SweTerror makes a major contribution to the study of terrorism in Sweden through a comprehensive mixed methods study of the political discourse on terrorism since the late 1960s. Drawing on artificial intelligence in the form of state-of-the-art language and speech technology, it systematically analyses all forms of relevant parliamentary utterances. It explores and curates an exhaustive but understudied multi-modal collection of primary sources of central relevance to Swedish democracy: the audio recordings of the Swedish Parliament’s debates. The project studies the framing of terrorism both as policy discourse and enacted politics, examining semantic and emotive components of the parliamentary discourse on terrorism as well as major actors and social networks involved. It covers political responses to a range of terrorism-related issues as well as factors influencing policy-makers’ engagement, including political affiliations and gender. SweTerror also develops an online research portal, featuring the complete research material and searchable audio made readily accessible for further exploration. Long-term, the project establishes a model for combining extraction technologies (speech recognition and analysis) for audiovisual parliamentary data with text mining and HSS interpretive methods and the portal is designed to serve as a prototype for other similar projects.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 169.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Deng, L.: Artificial learning in the rising wave of deep learning: the historical path and future outlook. IEEE Signal Process. Mag. 1(180), 173–177 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Tahmasebi, N., et al.: Visions and open challenges for a knowledge-based culturomics. Int. J. Digit. Libr. 15(2–4), 169–187 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Edlund, J., Heldner, M.: Underpinning/nailon/: Automatic estimation of pitch range and speaker relative pitch. In: Müller, C. (ed.) Speaker Classification II. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 4441, pp. 229–242. Springer, Heidelberg (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-74122-0_18

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  4. Heldner, M., Edlund, J.: Pauses, gaps and overlaps in conversations. J. Phon. 38(4), 555–568 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Heldner, M., Edlund, J., Hjalmarsson, A., Laskowski, K.: Very short utterances and timing in turn-taking. Interspeech 2011, Florence, Italy (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Fallgren, P., Malisz, Z., Edlund, J.: Bringing order to chaos: A non-sequential approach for browsing large sets of found audio data. In: LREC 2018 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Borin, L, Kokkinakis, D., Olsson, L.-J.: Naming the past: named entity and animacy recognition in 19th century Swedish literature. In: ACL 2007 Workshop on Language Technology for Cultural Heritage Data (LaTeCH 2007), pp. 1–8 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Borin, L., Dannélls, D., Olsson, L.-J.: Geographic visualization of place names in Swedish literary texts. Literary Linguist. Comput. 29(3), 400–404 (2019)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Fridlund, M., Olsson, L.J., Brodén, D., Borin, L.: Trawling the Gulf of Bothnia of news: a big data analysis of the emergence of terrorism in Swedish and Finnish newspapers, 1780–1926. In: Navarretta, C., Eskevich, M. (eds.) Proceedings of CLARIN Annual Conference 2020, Virtual Edition, pp. 61–65 (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Borin, L., Forsberg, M., Olsson, L.-J., Olsson, O., Uppström, J.: The lexical editing system of Karp. In: Koseum, I., Kallas, J., Gantar, P., Krek, S., Langemets, M., Tuulok, M. (eds.) Electronic Lexicography in the 21st Century: Thinking Outside the Paper. Proceedings of the eLex 2013 Conference, Tallinn, Estonia, 17–19 October 2013 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Lindhé, C., Eriksson, A.-C., Robertsson, J., Lindmark, M.: Curating Mary digitally: digital methodologies and representations of medieval material culture. In: Matt Hayler, M., Griffin, G. (eds.) Research Methods for Creating and Curating Data in the Digital Humanities. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Borin, L., Forsberg, M., Edlund, J., Domeij, R.: Språkbanken 2018: research resources for text, speech, & society. In: DHN 2018 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Horn, C., Ivarsson, O., Lindhé, C., Potter, R., Green, A., Ling, J.: Artificial Intelligence, 3D documentation, and rock art—approaching and reflecting on the automation of identification and classification of rock art images. J. Archaeol. Method Theory (2021).https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-021-09518-6

  14. Tahmasebi, N., Hagen, N., Brodén, D., Malm, M.: A convergence of methodologies: notes on data science-driven humanities research. In: Navaretta, C., Agirrezabal, M., Maegaard, B. (eds.) Proceedings of the Digital Humanities in the Nordic Countries 4th Conference, 5–8 March 2019, pp. 437–449. University of Copenhagen (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Fridlund, M., La Mela, M.: Between technological nostalgia and engineering imperialism: digital history readings of China in the Finnish technoindustrial public sphere 1880–1912. Tekniikan Waiheita 37(1), 7–40 (2019)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Fridlund, M., Oiva, M., Paju, P. (eds.): Digital Histories: Emergent Approaches in the New Digital History. Helsinki University Press, Helsinki (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Brodén, D.: Kløvede terrorbilder: Analyser av forskellige diskurser om terrorisme i mediekulturen. Social kritik 87, 10–34 (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Fridlund, M.: Buckets, bollards and bombs: towards subject histories of technologies and terrors. Hist. Technol. 27(4), 391–416 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Malkki, L., Fridlund, M., Sallaama, D.: Terrorism and political violence in the Nordic countries. Terrorism Polit. Violence 30(5), 761–771 (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Ängsal, M.P.: Sprechen – Öffentlichkeit – Aufklärung. Zur Sprachkritik im diskursiven Erinnern an die Rote Armee Fraktion anhand des Buches ’Stumme Gewalt. Nachdenken über die RAF’ von Carolin Emcke. Tekst i Dyskurs/Text und Diskurs 7, 115–135 (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Ängsal, M.P.: Visionen durch Emotionen schaffen. Eine Analyse emotiv basierter Argumentation im RAF-Manifest Die Rote Armee aufbauen (1970). In: Ängsal, M.P., Grub, F.T. (eds.) Visionen und Illusionen. Beiträge zur 11. Arbeitstagung schwedischer Germanistinnen und Germanisten Text im Kontext in Göteborg am 4./5, April 2014, pp. 27–40. Peter Lang Edition, Frankfurt a.M. (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Willumsen, D.M., Öhberg, P.: Toe the lie, break the whip: explaining floor dissent in parliamentary democracies. West Eur. Polit. 40(4), 688–716 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Pereira, M., Öhberg, P.: The expertise curse: how policy expertise can hinder responsiveness. OSF Preprints, pp. 1–27 (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Moretti, F.: Distant Reading. Verso, London (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Jockers, M.: Macroanalysis: Digital Methods and Literary History. University of Illinois Press, Chicago (2013)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  26. Manovich, L.: Cultural Analytics. MIT Press, Boston MA (2020)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  27. Marjanen, J., Pivovarova, L., Zoza, L, Kurunmäki, J.: Clustering ideological terms in historical newspaper data with diachronic word embeddings. In: Wevers, M., et al. (eds.) HistoInformatics 2019, Oslo, pp. 21–29 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Liu, A.: Theses on the Epistemology of the Digital: Advice for the Cambridge Centre for Digital Knowledge, 14 August 2014. http://liu.english.ucsb.edu/theses-on-the-epistemology-of-the-digital-page. Accessed 01 Jan 2021

  29. Rockwell, G., Sinclair, S.: Hermeneutica. MIT Press, Cambridge MA (2016)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  30. Stampnitzky, L.: Discipling Terror: How Experts Invented ’Terrorism’. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2013)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  31. Jackson, R.: In defence of ‘terrorism’: finding a way through a forest of misconceptions. Behav. Sci. Terrorism Polit. Aggress. 3(2), 116–130 ( 2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Brulin, R.: Compartmentalization: contexts of speech and the Israeli origins of the American discourse on ‘terrorism.’ Dialect. Anthropol. 39(1), 69–119 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Flyghed, J. (ed.): Brottsbekämpning: mellan effektivitet och integritet. Studentlitteratur, Lund (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  34. Hansén, D.: Crisis and perspectives on policy change: Swedish counter-terrorism policymaking. Dissertation. Swedish National Defence College, Stockholm (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  35. Bjereld, U., Demker, M.: Främlingskap: Svensk säkerhetstjänst och konflikterna i Nordafrika och Mellanöstern. Nordic Academic Press, Lund (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  36. Strandh, V., Eklund, N.: Swedish counterterrorism policy: an intersection between prevention and mitigation? Stud. Confl. Terror. 38(5), 359–379 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Lööw, H., Gardell, M., Dahlberg-Grundberg, M.: Den ensamme terroristen? Om lone wolves, näthat och brinnande flyktingförläggningar. Ordfront, Stockholm (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  38. Glassner, B.: Culture of Fear: Why Americans are Afraid of the Wrong Things. Basic Books, New York (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  39. Bäck, H., Debus, M., Müller, J.: Who takes the parliamentary floor? The role of gender in speech-making in the Swedish Riksdag. Polit. Res. Q. 67(3), 504–518 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Brader, T., Marcus, G.E.: Emotion and political psychology. In: Huddy, L., Sears, D.O., Levy, J.S. (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Political Psychology. Oxford University Press, Oxford (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  41. Palmiter Bajorek, J.: Voice recognition still has significant race and gender biases. Harv. Bus. Rev. 19(5), 21–29 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  42. Local, J.: Phonetic detail in talk-in-interaction: on the deployment and interplay of sequential context and phonetic resources. Nouveaux cahiers de linguistique française 28, 67–86 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  43. Borin, L., Forsberg, M., Roxendal, J.: Korp – the corpus infrastructure of Språkbanken. In: Proceedings of LREC 2012, pp. 474–478 (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  44. Tangherlini, P., Leonard, P.: Trawling in the sea of the great unread: sub-corpus topic modeling and humanities research. Poetics 41(6), 725–749 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  45. Berry, D., Fagerjord, A.: Digital Humanities: Knowledge and Critique in a Digital Age. Polity, London (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  46. Dobson, J.E.: Critical Digital Humanities: Search for a Methodology. University of Illinois Press, Urbana (2019)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  47. Rychnovska, D.: Securitization and the power of threat framing. Perspectives 22(2), 9–31 (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  48. Ziem, A.: Frames of Understanding in Text and Discourse. Benjamins, Amsterdam (2014)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  49. Wehling, E.: Politisches Framing. Wie eine Nation sich ihr Denken einredet - und daraus Politik macht. Herbert von Halem Verlag, Köln (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  50. Hall, C.: The Trouble with Passion: Political Theory Beyond Reign of Reason. Routledge, London (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  51. Ljunggren, J.: Den uppskjutna vreden: Socialdemokratisk känslopolitik från 1880- till 1980-talet. Nordic Academic Press, Lund (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  52. Hübler, A.: Metapragmatics. In: Bublitz, W., Norrick, N.R. (eds.) Foundations of Pragmatics. De Gruyter Mouton, Berlin (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  53. Rhodes, R.A.W.: Policy network analysis. In: Moran, M., et al. (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Public Policy, pp. 423–445. Oxford University Press, Oxford (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  54. Buzan, B., Wæver, O., de Wilde, J.: Security: A New Framework for Analysis. Lynne Rieder Publ., Boulder (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  55. Huddy, L., Feldman, S., Weber, C.: The political consequences of perceived threat and felt insecurity. Ann. Am. Acad. Pol. Soc. Sci. 614(1), 131–153 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mats Fridlund .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Edlund, J. et al. (2022). A Multimodal Digital Humanities Study of Terrorism in Swedish Politics: An Interdisciplinary Mixed Methods Project on the Configuration of Terrorism in Parliamentary Debates, Legislation, and Policy Networks 1968–2018. In: Arai, K. (eds) Intelligent Systems and Applications. IntelliSys 2021. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 295. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82196-8_32

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics