Death and the Penguin: modularity,alienation and organising

ABSTRACT

The originality of this paper lies in the ways in which it explores how the depiction of organised crime within Andrey Kurkov’s novel Death and the Penguin can inform our understanding of organisational modularity. This non-orthodox approach might open up new avenues of thought in the study of organisational modularity while further illustrating how novelistic worlds can inform accounts of organisational realities. Two main research questions underlie the paper. How can Andrey Kurkov’s novel further our understanding of the complexity of organisational worlds and realities by focusing our attention on different landscapes of organising? How does Kurkov’s novel help us grasp the concept of modularity by drawing attention to new forms of modular organisation? Drawing from our reading of Kurkov’s novel, we primarily explore organisational modularity through Kurkov’s depiction of organised crime and consider the themes of alienation and isolation in the context of modular organising.     

National Culture on the Cross-National Variation of Homicide: An Empirical Application of the Inglehart–Welzel Cultural Map

Although there has been a growing literature on the effects of culture on the cross-national variation of homicide, this literature remains limited in the operationalization of national culture as well as in the modeling of the cultural effects. Adopting a multidimensional measure of national culture developed in the World Values Survey, this study examines the effects of various aspects of national culture, as well as their interaction, on the cross-national variation of homicide. The findings of this study provide evidence for the effect of national culture on homicide variation across countries while painting a more complex picture about the potential mechanisms of these effects.     

Risking safety and rights: online sex work,crimes and ‘blended safety repertoires’

It has been well established that those working in the sex industry are at various risks of violence and crime depending on where they sell sex and the environments in which they work. What sociological research has failed to address is how crime and safety have been affected by the dynamic changing nature of sex work given the dominance of the internet and digital technologies, including the development of new markets such as webcamming. This paper reports the most comprehensive findings on the internet‐based sex market in the UK demonstrating types of crimes experienced by internet‐based sex workers and the strategies of risk management that sex workers adopt, building on our article in the British Journal of Sociology in 2007. We present the concept of ‘blended safety repertoires’ to explain how sex workers, particularly independent escorts, are using a range of traditional techniques alongside digitally enabled strategies to keep themselves safe. We contribute a deeper understanding of why sex workers who work indoors rarely report crimes to the police, reflecting the dilemmas experienced. Our findings highlight how legal and policy changes which seek to ban online adult services advertising and sex work related content within online spaces would have direct impact on the safety strategies online sex workers employ and would further undermine their safety. These findings occur in a context where aspects of sex work are quasi‐criminalized through the brothel keeping legislation. We conclude that the legal and policy failure to recognize sex work as a form of employment, contributes to the stigmatization of sex work and prevents individuals working together. Current UK policy disallows a framework for employment laws and health and safety standards to regulate sex work, leaving sex workers in the shadow economy, their safety at risk in a quasi‐legal system. In light of the strong evidence that the internet makes sex work safer, we argue that decriminalisation as a rights based model of regulation is most appropriate.     

The business of writing: literature as a commodity in Claudia Piñeiro’s Betibú

This article presents considerations about the status of literature as a commodity and writers as professionals in the twenty-first century. These considerations are based on an analysis of Argentine writer Claudia Piñeiro’s Betibú (2011), which follows the story of an Argentine crime novel writer who becomes a ghostwriter after her latest novel receives harsh reviews for being considered commercial rather than literary. I argue that the novel in question points out misconceptions about the influence of the book industry on the aesthetic quality of literary writing, highlighting the need for literary criticism to look into everyday relations between readers, authors, and editors.     

校园贷刑事规制问题研究

互联网金融发展使得新型金融产品应运而生。校园贷具有数额小、效率高、门槛低等优势，吸引了有超前消费需求的在校大学生。由于平台监管缺失、大学生消费非理性等因素，校园贷滋生出了高利贷、骗贷、裸贷等乱象，部分行为还构成了违法犯罪。与其他网络贷款方式相比，校园贷具有借款对象单一性、贷款方式隐蔽性、抵押方式非具象性、催款手段违法性、受害学生犯罪转化性等特征，导致校园贷走入迷途。为了有效规范和严格治理校园贷，可以通过建立犯罪防控体系、促进联合监管、强化学生法治意识等路径，将校园贷引入良性发展轨道，最终实现良好的法律效果和社会效果。     

Going solo: the social organisation of drug dealing within a London street gang

This paper presents a single case study of one street gang in one London borough. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 gang members, or former gang members, and seven practitioners. The practitioners and gang members/ex-gang members reported different perspectives on how the gang was structured and drug dealing was organised. The gang members/ex-gang members suggested that the gang is a loose social network with little recognisable formal organisation. Although individual gang members sell drugs, the gang should not be viewed as a drug dealing organisation. Rather it is a composition of individual drug dealers who cooperate out of mutual self-interest. Therefore, some gang members are best described as independent entrepreneurs while others are subcontractors looking to ‘go solo’. The seven practitioners, however, tended to describe a more hierarchically structured gang, with formal recruitment processes. This divergence of perspective highlights an important consideration for policy and research.     

寻衅滋事罪的适用与改造

认定寻衅滋事罪的根本在于是否侵犯社会秩序法益。寻衅滋事罪在司法适用过程中存在司法行为的界定模糊、对“公共场所”的解释不一致等问题。在司法适用的过程中,应尽可能地在刑法条文的框架下合理解释口袋罪名,规范适用目的解释方法,适度限制实质解释和扩张解释的冲动。     

简论经济犯罪与死刑

我国是世界上对经济犯罪适用死刑的极少数国家之一。随着我国经济的发展,我国的经济犯罪也日益严重,立法机关希望通过死刑的适用来遏制经济犯罪。但事与愿违,死刑的适用并没有收到预期的效果,还违背了刑罚的目的和罪刑均衡原则。因此,我国在立法上应当废除对经济犯罪的死刑,规定经济犯罪的法定最高刑为无期徒刑,并附加适用财产刑。     

清初回族循吏张瑾史迹

明初西域人阿不都拉因善射被明太祖赐姓为张,其后裔世居扬州,清康熙年间的著名循吏张瑾是他的后代。本文对张瑾的族属、史迹进行了探讨。     

马航 MH17事件引发的国际法思考

2014年7月17日,马来西亚航空公司的一架客机在飞越乌克兰东部交战区域时被导弹击中坠毁,机组人员与乘客全部遇难。基于相关事实,认为根据现有国际条约,故意击落他国民航客机属于严重危害民用航空安全的犯罪行为,且违反了1949年《关于战时保护平民之日内瓦公约》的规定,构成了《国际刑事法院规约》中的“战争罪”。限于种种因素,国际刑事法院和国际法院很难对涉事的国家和个人实施管辖,但犯罪发生地国、航空器登记地国、罪犯藏匿地国乃至受害者国籍国等都可依普遍管辖权或其国内法的规定对本案实施管辖并对罪犯定罪量刑。