Challenging the techno-politics of anonymity: the case of cryptomarket users

Anonymity is treated as a problem of governance that can be subject to technical resolution. We use the example of the darknet to critically examine this approach. We explore the background assumptions that have been made about anonymity as a quality of social life. We conceive of anonymity as a way of engaging and maintaining social relationships in an anonymous mode. We draw on a study of darknet ‘cryptomarket’ users who mainly use the darknet to buy and sell illicit drugs, discuss drug quality and share information on safe and effective use. We identify the personal satisfaction that comes from interacting anonymously online, the challenges this represents for maintaining trusted interactions and how they are overcome, and the combination of technology and action involved in maintaining anonymity. We argue that attempts to promote de-anonymising norms and technology are based on an erroneous understanding of what anonymity is.     

May’s Theorem with an infinite population

In this paper, we investigate majority rule with an infinite number of voters. We use an axiomatic approach and attempt to extend Mays Theorem characterizing majority rule to an infinite population. The analysis hinges on correctly generalizing the anonymity condition and we consider three different versions. We settle on bounded anonymity as the appropriate form for this condition and are able to use the notion of asymptotic density to measure the size of almost all sets of voters. With this technique, we define density q-rules and show that these rules are characterized by neutrality, monotonicity, and bounded anonymity on almost all sets. Although we are unable to provide a complete characterization applying to all possible sets of voters, we construct an example showing that our result is the best possible. Finally, we show that strengthening monotonicity to density positive responsiveness characterizes density majority rule on almost all sets.My thanks to John Duggan for useful discussions. I also thank Milo Ziman and the participants of the Workshop on the Density Concept held at Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia.     

Multi-profile welfarism: A generalization

This paper characterizes welfarist social evaluation in a multi-profile setting where, in addition to multiple utility profiles, there may be more than one profile of non-welfare information. We prove a new version of the welfarism theorem in this alternative framework, and we demonstrate that adding a plausible and weak anonymity property to the welfarism axioms generates welfarist social-evaluation orderings that are anonymous.This is a revised version of our earlier paper “Welfarism with multiple non-welfare profiles.” We thank François Maniquet, Kotaro Suzumura, John Weymark, an editor and two referees for comments and discussions. The paper was presented at the International Symposium on Intergenerational Equity in Tokyo, December 2001 and at the Meeting of the Society for Social Choice and Welfare in Pasadena, July 2002. Financial support through a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada is gratefully acknowledged.     

AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF ALTERNATIVE CAMPAIGN FINANCE SYSTEMS: TRANSPARENCY,DONATIONS, AND POLICY CHOICES

We experimentally study the transparency effect of alternative campaign finance systems on donations, election outcomes, policy choices, and welfare. Three alternatives are considered: one where donors' preferences and donations are unobserved by the candidate and public; one where they are observed by the candidate but not the public; and one where they are observed by all. We label them full anonymity (FA), partial anonymity (PA), and no anonymity (NA), respectively. We find that in NA and PA candidates consistently respond to donations by choosing policies favoring the donors. FA, in contrast, is the most successful in limiting the influence of donations on policy choices. Donors benefit greatly from the possibility of donations whereas social welfare may be harmed in some treatments. To our knowledge, this article is the first to investigate the effect of different campaign finance systems distinguished by their transparency level. (JEL D72)     

Partners for protection: a future direction for child protection?

The development of an innovative group working with female, non‐abusing carers is described. Part educational and part therapeutic, it sits squarely within child protection procedures and forms part of an interagency approach to protecting children from sexual abuse. Group processes are described and difficulties are explored, including those experienced by the women themselves in relation to child protection procedures. Current service approaches and attitudes may have potentially adverse consequences for the ultimate aim of child protection and these are considered together with a discussion of the value of alternative approaches. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Youth politics as multiple processes: how teenagers construct political action in Sweden

Alternative approaches to power in youth politics are needed to overcome the conceptual dichotomy between youth political action that is either linked to – or delinked from – state institutions. This paper offers an alternative drawn from a study that sought to empirically explore, and build theory upon, how teenagers construct their political action. Our qualitative study among 10 activists aged between 17 and 19 in a medium-size city in Northern Sweden found that youth constructed their political action as four different processes: moving from consciousness to action, moving from personal experience to shared goals, moving from social activities to political activities, and moving from single to multiple arenas. We integrated these processes in the concept Youth Politics as Multiple Processes. Youth efforts to bring about these processes were not always fruitful because, as their political action gained complexity, youth faced greater constraints for recognizing, addressing and challenging power from age-based exclusion, state-centered definitions of politics, and adult disinterest in youth demands. According to our findings, youth constructed political action based in an approach to power that was not state-centered. We linked our findings to youth politics research and social movement theory that similarly proposed alternative approaches to power.     

Looking Beyond Traditional Volunteer Management: A Case Study of an Alternative Approach to Volunteer Engagement in Parks and Recreation

In an era of declining volunteerism it is critical to examine alternative approaches to volunteer management that may better promote engagement and address common barriers to volunteering. Using a “best practices” Canadian case study approach, this research describes an alternative approach to volunteer engagement that emphasizes lifestyle integration, organizational informality and flexibility, and volunteer–agency collaboration. We suggest that traditional volunteer management structures may actually be hindering engagement and call instead for a more vocation-based, networked, and collaborative approach which affords greater autonomy to the volunteer and sees power being shared between agencies and volunteers.     

Removing the anonymity axiom in assessing pro-poor growth

The recent focus on ‘pro-poor growth’ led also to an intense debate on how exactly to define and to measure pro-poor growth. All suggested measures have in common that they are based on the anonymity axiom. Such a perspective may provide a very incomplete picture given that the common objective of most studies investigating the pro-poorness of growth is to test whether specific policy reforms where beneficial to the initially poor or not. I suggest a new concept of pro-poor growth which removes the anonymity axiom, and, using an illustration based on data from Indonesia and Peru, I check whether the assessment of pro-poor growth is different when an anonymous and a non anonymous approach to pro-poor growth is used. I also suggest an original decomposition of poverty changes over time which links both concepts. The results show that the choice of the approach has a drastic impact on the interpretation of the data.     

Setting aside mood-biased thoughts and judgements: theory-based bias correction / Apartar las opiniones y los pensamientos sesgados por el estado de ánimo: la corrección del sesgo basada en teoría

Abstract

When people perceive their thoughts and judgements as unduly affected by some biasing factor (in themselves or in the judgement setting), they often attempt to avoid or remove those biases. Theories describe different psychological mechanisms guiding these efforts. We review the primary theories of bias correction and focus on the use of naive theories of bias in attempts to form accurate assessments of judgement targets. One distinguishing feature of the theory-based correction approach is its ability to deal with corrections for contrastive biases (i.e., biases that lead judgements in a direction opposite to the meaning of the biasing factor). Another is that any perceived biasing factor can result in corrections, even when those factors are not easily mapped into the kinds of mental representation mechanisms that form the heart of alternative approaches. We use corrections for mood-based biases to illustrate the utility of the theory-based correction approach, even though many mood-based biases can be conceptualized in ways that fit alternative approaches to bias correction. Implications for correction of many potential types of biases are discussed.     

Measuring inequality of opportunity with imperfect data: the case of Turkey

The measurement of inequality of opportunity has hitherto not been attempted in a number of countries because of data limitations. This paper proposes two alternative approaches to circumventing the missing data problems in countries where a demographic and health survey (DHS) and an ancillary household expenditure survey are available. One method relies only on the DHS, and constructs a wealth index as a measure of economic advantage. The alternative method imputes consumption from the ancillary survey into the DHS. In both cases, we compute a lower bound estimator of the share of (ex-ante) inequality of opportunity in total inequality. Parametric and non-parametric estimates are calculated for each method, and the parametric approach is shown to yield preferable lower-bound measures. In an application to the sample of ever-married women aged 30–49 in Turkey, inequality of opportunity accounts for at least 26% (31%) of overall inequality in imputed consumption (the wealth index).     

Challenging Demography: Contributions from Feminist Theory

Demography as a field has made limited progress in its work on understanding the role of gender in demographic change for several reasons. This paper explores the theoretical, methodological, and political influences on this understanding. For example, demography can be seen as a field that because of its stability and resources, has not been forced into the crises that might force it to question its assumptions and methodologies; it has not developed a tradition of reflexivity, one which might address alternative approaches to this and other issues, such as the political nature of population work. In addition, partly because of a reliance on certain kinds of methodological approaches, demographers tend to use measures of gender that reflect individual characteristics rather than those that allow understanding of gender at a larger level, or provide information beyond the individual. The result is a particular approach to gender within demographic studies. Feminist theoretical approaches to gender could contribute to the field and the study of population change in general in several key ways.     

The common-sense model of illness representation: Theoretical and practical considerations

This article focuses on several areas. After reviewing the most commonly used approaches in the study of health behaviors, (e.g., the medical model, the health belief model, and the theory of reasoned action) the common-sense model is presented as an alternative. By presenting evidence across a wide range of illness domains, we demonstrate the usefulness of the common-sense, self-regulatory approach. We then discuss the importance of the common-sense model for health research among minorities. We conclude the article with examples of the operationalization of illness representations in past research and directions for future research.     

The Common-Sense Model of Illness Representation: Theoretical and Practical Considerations

This article focuses on several areas. After reviewing the most commonly used approaches in the study of health behaviors, (e.g., the medical model, the health belief model, and the theory of reasoned action) the common-sense model is presented as an alternative. By presenting evidence across a wide range of illness domains, we demonstrate the usefulness of the common-sense, self-regulatory approach. We then discuss the importance of the common-sense model for health research among minorities. We conclude the article with examples of the operationalization of illness representations in past research and directions for future research.     

The Monetary Value of Voluntary Work: Conceptual and Empirical Comparisons

The purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive comparison of different valuation approaches for estimating the monetary value of voluntary work both conceptually and empirically. This study adds to the literature by suggesting two approaches: (1) the leisure-adjusted opportunity cost approach (OCA), which corrects for voluntary work being a leisure substitute, is suggested as an alternative to the alternative-employment wage approach (AEWA). And (2) the volunteer judgment replacement wage approach (RWA), where volunteers state a wage rate that they consider adequate for the task they perform, is suggested as an alternative to the generic RWA. Using data on volunteers in German non-profit sports clubs (n = 566), the valuations show that the monetary value of 1 h of voluntary work is highest for the generic RWA (€14.27), followed by the AEWA (€14.03), the volunteer judgment RWA (€9.98), and the leisure-adjusted OCA (€1.78).

     

Laughing otherwise: comic-critical approaches in alternative comedy

Abstract

The origins of ‘alternative comedy’ are difficult to pinpoint, though it coincided with the rise of Thatcher as Prime Minister in 1979 – that year saw the appearance of something called ‘alternative cabaret’, a term usually associated with Tony Allen, who combined activism and comedy. The acts this article will focus on are those which took a critical approach to comedy and/or politics – ‘alternative’ comedy (or altcom), therefore, as seeming to promise change through critical awareness. This paper will discuss parody as a means of critical (dis)engagement and transformation, in relation to context, and to influences such as punk. Altcom demonstrates an apparent eschewal of approaches which rely on irony and ambiguity, in favour of more ‘direct’ political engagement. It will be argued however that such ‘direct’ approach does not cancel out critical distance, but rather seeks alternative routes to establish it – namely comic and parodic overstatement, and the problematisation of ‘trust’. This entails the key questions of whether parody may take up critical distance without irony, as well as of the political implications of an approach which seeks to eliminate ambiguity. This more ‘direct’ approach however still depends on a balance of engagement and disengagement, requiring distancing from pre-established codes.     

Effects of anonymity and experimenter demand on client satisfaction with mental health services

Among the methodological issues associated with the measurement of client satisfaction are those concerning anonymity of response, experimenter demand effects, and reliability of instruments. In this study, 100 inpatients were randomly assigned in a 2 X 2 factorial design; subjects were asked or not asked to sign their names to the CSQ-8 questionnaire and were asked or not asked to "tell it like it is." The reported satisfaction of those given anonymity was significantly lower but there was no effect due to demand. Furthermore, subjects in the anonymity group had lower scores on all 8 items of the questionnaire. A factor analysis of the CSQ-8 revealed one major factor; the internal consistency of the scale was .93. The CSQ-8 was found to be a useful measure of overall client satisfaction but, because ceiling effects are a pervasive problem in client satisfaction research, anonymity should be assured whenever possible.     

On strategy-proof social choice correspondences: a comment

In a recent paper, Sato (Soc Choice Welf doi:) has provided two alternative definitions of strategy-proofness for social choice correspondences and proved that they are incompatible with the joint requirements of anonymity, neutrality, and a minimal range condition. In this note, we use the results in Rodríguez-álvarez (Soc Choice Welf 29:175–199, 2007) to directly prove stronger versions of Sato’s theorems. The author wishes to thank Shin Sato and John Weymark for their comments and suggestions. Financial support from the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia through the Programa Ramón y Cajal 2006 and grant SEJ-2005-04805, the Consejería de Innovación, Ciencia y Empresa, Junta de Andalucía through grant SEJ-01645, and the Fundación Ramón Areces is gratefully acknowledged.     

To claim or not to claim: Anonymity,symmetric externalities and honesty

In many situations, economic actors submit claims for money which are unverifiable or hard to verify. Examples include claims for a tax return or an insurance payout. This paper investigates what role anonymity and externalities play for the decision of whether to be (dis)honest when making such claims. First, does honest claiming increase when anonymity is removed and unverified claims are made public? We present experimental evidence to this effect. Second, does honest reporting increase when it is public knowledge that claims affect others’ payoffs and claimants’ payoffs are symmetrically affected by others’ claims? We find no such effect. Making claims public and having symmetric externalities together increases honesty, but this effect is driven solely by the reduction in anonymity.     

QCA as competing or complementary method? A qualitative comparative analysis approach to protest event data

Studies of state repression of protest have focused on theories of threat and weakness, in which states repress movements that threaten state authority or elite interest or movements that lack organizational or political strength. Empirical studies have most often used regression analysis of protest-event datasets. This paper proposes qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) as an alternative approach to protest-event data that retains more qualitative complexity and captures the conjunctural and heterogeneous nature of causation during events. The paper applies both methods to protest data from the United States (1963–1973). While both methods provide strong evidence for the threat and weakness hypotheses, QCA more effectively illustrates how combinations of threat and weakness factors increase the risk of repression. The paper argues that QCA is a viable alternative approach to event data, but it should also be seen as a valuable complementary method that can improve regression-based approaches.     

IS THE TIME-SERIES EVIDENCE ON MINIMUM WAGE EFFECTS CONTAMINATED BY PUBLICATION BIAS?

Existing meta-analysis approaches to testing for publication bias are problematic when applied to time-series studies in economics, because changes in parameters can generate spurious evidence of publication bias. We suggest an alternative test in such contexts, and apply it to time-series studies of the effects of minimum wages on employment. In contrast to recent research by Card and Krueger [1995a], we find that the results of published time-series studies of minimum wage effects are consistent with structural change, and that the null hypothesis of no publication bias is not rejected by the evidence. ( JEL B41, C22, C40, J23)