Transparency and Unmasking Issues in Ethnographic Crime Research: Methodological Considerations

A transparency movement has begun urging researchers to publicize their data in order to ease replication and accountability. Some ethnographers have also begun arguing that researchers should unmask, or fully disclose, field sites and participant identities in order to replicate studies, verify accounts, and monitor social phenomena over time. However, for ethnographers studying violence and crime, full transparency or unmasking can get an ethnographer harmed. Thus, I broaden the unmasking/masking discussion by arguing for partial disclosures in dangerous research. To do so, I provide examples from my previous drug market ethnography and my ongoing gang research. I then propose safer ways to disclose field sites and participants, mainly through the following: semibiographical disclosure, where the ethnographer strategically omits some data in otherwise rich biographical portraits; through partial spatial disclosures, where the ethnographer reveals the field site's general area; and through invitational disclosure, where the ethnographer invites outsiders to meet participants in the field.     

The Institutional Capacity for Forest Devolution: The Case of Forest Land Allocation in Vietnam

The article assesses the institutional capacity of a devolution policy, namely forest land allocation (FLA) in Vietnam. We applied the governance capacity framework, which is based on the policy arrangement approach, to examine the extent to which the policy enables actors to work together in order to solve collective problems. The findings reveal that, overall, the institutional capacity of FLA in Vietnam is rather low, although it varies from region to region. This result is determined by the restricted and ambiguous codification of property rights, the limited resource availability, the symbolic venues for deliberation and the lack of openness of actors towards others’ views in the policy process. External factors, particularly agricultural development, also had a major impact on institutional capacity.     

中国企业海外并购中知识产权的风险识别

知识产权作为企业抢占竞争优势的关键性资源,已经成为中国企业开展海外并购活动的重要目的。然而,涉及知识产权的海外并购是一个十分复杂且高风险的过程,即便是大型跨国公司也都曾出现过重大失误。基于知识产权获取的并购活动包括并购前、并购中和并购后3个阶段,对3个阶段中知识产权并购风险的准确甄别,将有助于企业保护自身权益,有效实现知识产权转移和价值创造。     

'Laying a foundation of fact': Fabianism and the information society thesis

This article explores affinities between postindustrialism and modes of thinking characteristic of the Fabian Society, especially in the first half of the twentieth century. In the hands of Daniel Bell and others, the information society thesis postulates the coming of a postindustrial society marked by the centrality of information and knowledge. While caveats abound in Bell's version, the thesis has been generally optimistic in outlook, portraying postindustrial society as an advanced level of social development. Interestingly, the Fabian Society, a British-based organization highly influential in the twentieth-century project of social democracy, also emphasized information in its advocacy of social progress: 'laying a foundation of fact', according to one commentator, was a key ingredient of the Fabian approach. Texts by thinkers such as Sidney Webb and H.G. Wells suggest that 'informationalism', a commitment to information in an original sense of hard facts and figures, must indeed be construed as the essence of Fabianism, as that which distinguishes the Fabians from more metaphysical or emotional expressions of socialism. The article traces the link between information-powered politics and the largely successful practice of social engineering in Britain. However, social engineering can, and in the case of some Fabians did, degenerate into a technocratic and even totalitarian mindset. Critiques of Fabianism are therefore also acknowledged here, including those claiming that the Fabian preoccupation with data-gathering and filing, its 'proceduralism', actually constituted a major weakness. However, given its noble informational ideal, Fabianism can, the article concludes, illuminate contemporary information society problems. The Fabian tradition contains suggestive materials on such topical themes as fair access to information, the role of facts in progressive politics, and the prospects for an international institutional order.     

The Role of Foreign Banks in Poland

The paper examines the process of the Polish banking sector's internationalisation, with a particular intention of describing incentives and the impact of foreign banks entry. In order to carry out an assessment of changes in the banking market structure and banks' performance, the study introduces arguments and motivations of foreign capital inflow into local financial systems with implications for the stability and the development of the banking sector. The role of foreign capital in the Polish economy derives from an analysis of the effects of foreign banks penetration, in terms of changes in competitiveness, efficiency, and stability of the banking sector. An assessment of concentration level and development prospects have also been included.     

Privatization and Foreign investments: The Case of Serbia and Montenegro

The paper analyzes the privatization process with the participation of foreign investments in countries in transition. Privatization is a necessity in transition countries as a prerequisite of the move to a market economy. Foreign investments are of great importance for the economies of the transition countries, not only to inject necessary capital but also to provide access to new technologies, new markets, and organizational and marketing expertise. For the successful initiation and implementation of these processes, some basic requirements are to be met; namely, to assure more adequate protection of property rights and upgrade legislation related to privatization and foreign investments.     

Online amplification of air pollution risk perception: the moderating role of affect in information

This study investigates the amplification effect of the Internet on Chinese people’s air pollution risk perception. Analyses are based on data collected from a sample of Internet users in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou (N?=?328). This study assumes that the characteristics of online information ? availability of information and affect in information ? will significantly contribute to the increase in air pollution risk perception. Results of path analysis indicated marginal significance of the effect of information availability on air pollution risk perception. Regarding the influence of affect in information, results showed that information including appeals to affect significantly increased perceived risk of air pollution; meanwhile, it also functioned as a moderator that significantly increased the strength of the causal relationship between information availability and risk perception. Findings of this study suggest that strategies for appropriately amplifying risk perception such as using heuristics may contribute to promoting public awareness of risks as well as encouraging public participation in the social effort to tackle risks.     

Domestic institutions and foreign assistance in Haiti: Requisites for economic development

Considering institutional and geographic explanations for economic development, the institutional thesis is relevant to explain the historically weak governance structure, even as there have been robust foreign assistance efforts for development in recent years. Taken together, the weak role of the state and low levels of human development are evidence of the challenges. Reviewing the post‐colonial legacy of Haiti, and its impact on economic development, this article discusses the lack of an integral state resulting in weak institutions. Especially since the earthquake in early 2010, the international development community has been an essential partner for reform initiatives, which will require accountable and inclusive domestic institutions to be effective.     

The role of educational institutions in the clientization of immigrants: The Swedish case

European nations are multicultural societies. Multiculturalism is more a part of these countries' intellectual debates, however, than part of their policies and practices. The public and governmental sectors of Europe still remain monocultural. Monoculturalism, which entails the cultural hegemony of the ‘white majority’ of European societies over ‘other’ cultural groups, is a part of the systematic reproduction of an established social order. Formal education is an important means of reproduction of the monocultural order. European monoculturalism is based on an ethnocentrism that has a long tradition in the Western worldview and is institutionalized in its political, judicial, educational and bureaucratic systems. Western monoculturalism has become increasingly problematic in the face of growing multiculturalism in Europe and jeopardizes the existing social order. The integration of diverse immigrant groups into the host societies is not compatible with the reproduction of Western cultural hegemony, a hegemony through which the policy of integration is simply reduced to a political goal that limits immigrants' action to that of adjusting themselves to objective norms and rules. Monoculturally educated groups, who are supposed to help immigrants become integrated into such societies, paradoxically construct obstacles to their integration.     

Access to Land,Rural Development and Public Action: The When and the How

After being marginalised in the 1980s, land‐reform policies came back to national and international development agendas during the 1990s, resulting in a revival of academic research on the subject. This article reviews the empirical literature on access to land, rural development and public action for evidence on when and how the state should intervene in the allocation of rural land. The review suggests that positive impacts are obtained if, and only if, public actions on the allocation of land are carried out under certain conditions and in a certain way. The article ends by highlighting the need to elaborate empirical models that take into consideration opportunity costs and interactions, and that integrate individual responses with aggregate effects.     

The Venezuelan Government and the Global Field: The Legislative Battle over Foreign Funding for Nongovernmental Organizations

In recent years, several governments have targeted nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) by enacting legislation that prohibits foreign funding for them. This article uses diplomatic cables, newspaper articles, and interviews with representatives from NGOs and donors to explain the Venezuelan government's passage of legislation prohibiting foreign funding for political NGOs in 2010. Existent political, sociological, and globalization‐oriented theories fail to explain the passage and timing of this legislation. Instead, I utilize and extend global fields theory to examine the Venezuelan government's redirection of its foreign relations, which I argue generated the political opportunity for the government to pass this legislation. I show that the government initially remained keyed into a global subfield involving groups that successfully pressured it to reconsider a more radical form of legislation prohibiting direct foreign funding for all NGOs when it came up for discussion in 2006, including the U.S. and Western European governments, and domestic NGOs. By 2010, however, the government had become embedded within a global subfield involving authoritarian and anti‐imperial governments that had already passed similar legislation, and domestic community councils. These newfound relations insulated the government from reconsideration and allowed it the political opportunity to pass a new, less radical piece of legislation.     

The accountability gap: The use of preliminary and evaluative research in Spain

In a context where it is of increasing importance to optimize resources, to refine the definition of the environment and to demonstrate the return on investment (ROI), preliminary research and evaluation in PR have not evolved significantly in the past two decades. There are very few publications examining the Spanish case and the results of this study indicate that these practices are uncommon. There is a slight preference for research prior to the development of the campaign at the expense of evaluative research. Furthermore, there is a notable discrepancy between the results of the Spanish study and the published studies from other countries: perception audits (outtakes) and views (outcomes) are undertaken more frequently than publicity audits (outputs).     

Measuring success: Explications and measurement scales of instructing information and adjusting information

Substantial research exists to study reputation management messages but far less research exists to consider instructing information and adjusting information during and after a crisis. This research seeks to build tools that assist in the study of base crisis responses. Using a literature review, 18 interviews with people with expertise in public relations, and an experiment with 286 participants recruited from mTurk, this research builds scales that assess the quality of instructing information and adjusting information given during a crisis. The resulting scales are found to be reliable and predict significant change in post-crisis reputation in an initial test. Potential uses of these scales for crisis communication scholars and public relations practitioners are discussed.     

The Origins and Influence of Land Property Rights in Vietnam

Vietnam's 1993 Land Law was intended not only to increase the security of farmers’usage rights to their land, but also to facilitate land transfers. Despite potential benefits, the actual issuance of land‐use rights certificates to farmers (as specified by the law) proceeded rather slowly in some regions. This article seeks to identify factors that explain the emergence of this form of property right as well as to measure its effect on agricultural production. The results suggest that the certificate's direct contribution may be rather small in the absence of the appropriate supporting conditions and institutions.     

Managing our urban future: the role of remote sensing and geographic information systems

Urban growth is inevitable over the next two decades. The bulk of this growth will take place in less developed countries. This presents a formidable challenge for urban planners and managers. With this in mind, this paper considers some of the ways urban planners can make use of recent developments in remote sensing and geographic information systems technology to respond to this challenge. The discussion is divided into four sections. The first of these considers the nature of the tasks involved. The second examines the potential of remote sensing and geographic information systems to assist in these tasks in general terms. The third section presents some of the findings of three case studies of contrasting application areas in the urban planning field which give some insights as to how these tools can be used to respond to this challenge. The final section rounds off the discussion with a vision of sustainable urban development and its implementation at the local level.     

The interpreter as institutional gatekeeper: The social-linguistic role of interpreters in Spanish-English medical discourse

Increases in immigration have led to an enormous growth in the number of cross-linguistic medical encounters taking place throughout the United States. In this article the role of hospital-based interpreters in cross-linguistic, internal medicine ‘medical interviews’ is examined. The interpreter's actions are analyzed against the historical and institutional context within which she is working, and also with an eye to the institutional goals that frame the patient-physician discourse. Interpreters are found not to be acting as ‘neutral’ machines of semantic conversion, but are rather shown to be active participants in the process of diagnosis. Since this process hinges on the evaluation of social and medical relevance of patient contributions to the discourse, the interpreter can be seen as an additional institutional gatekeeper for the recent immigrants for whom she is interpreting. Cross-linguistic medical interviews may also be viewed as a form of cross-cultural interaction; in this light, the larger political ramifications of the interpreters' actions are explored. ‘Interpreters are the most powerful people in a medical conversation.’ Head of Interpreting Services at a major private U.S. hospital, May 1999.     

论文学语言在大学英语教学中的意义

本文主要论述了英美文学与大学英语教学相结合的重要性,以及文学语言的渗透在教学中的实际意义。笔者认为采用英美文学与大学英语教学相结合的教学模式是我国英语教育改革的一项重要尝试,有助于提高学生的语言能力以及拓展综合素质,并在文中举例分析论证了这种教学模式的可行性。     

The disparity in land grant funding from state sources between traditionally white institutions and traditionally black institutions in Louisiana and Mississippi: The role of agricultural development legislation

Senator Justin Morrill of Vermont as a young Congressman in 1862 obtained legislation for the establishment of colleges in the respective States for education in agriculture and the mechanic arts and including other fields of study. After 12 unsuccessful attempts. Senator Morrill obtained similar legislation in 1890 which permitted the establishment of such colleges for Blacks. In the meantime, agriculturalists of the period obtained legislation in agricultural research and extension in 1887 and 1913 respectively which was officially designated by Congress as progeny of the original 1862 legislation. These four acts and other such minor acts are referred to as land grant legislation. The Black land grant colleges and their Black clients have never significantly benefited on the State level from the 1887 and 1913 acts and only in the early 1970s did they begin benefiting from the federal funding in the 1913 Act. This article details and discusses the disparities and consequences of the lack of a rural development policy for Blacks and Black land colleges.     

Safe credit to the poor: The role of anti‐usury policies

Usury regulations focus both on explicit recommendations, such as disclosure statements in lending acts or interest rate caps, and on incentives for the formal banking sector to reach the poor. Considerable attention is also devoted to adequate sanctions for the practice of usury. We propose a theoretical model to investigate where to direct reforms to curb usury. Our primary policy implication is the convenience of polarizing the allocation of public resources in either legal safeguards for formal lenders or sanction enforcement against usurers. Furthermore, we demonstrate that in developing countries such policy interventions may backfire when borrowers' higher wealth implies increasing inequality in its distribution. Therefore, countries undertaking reforms against predatory lending should be aware of their growth path during transition.