Believe it when you see it: Dyadic embeddedness and reputation effects on trust in cryptomarkets for illegal drugs

Large-scale online marketplace data have been repeatedly used to test sociological theories on trust between strangers. Most studies focus on sellers’ aggregate reputation scores, rather than on buyers’ individual decisions to trust. Theoretical predictions on how repeated exchanges affect trust within dyads and how buyers weigh individual experience against reputation feedback from other actors have not been tested directly in detail. What do buyers do when they are warned not to trust someone they have trusted many times before? We analyze reputation effects on trust at the dyadic and network levels using data from an illegal online drug marketplace. We find that buyers’ trust decisions are primarily explained by dyadic embeddedness - cooperative sellers get awarded by repeated exchanges. Although buyers take third-party information into account, this effect is weaker and more important for first-time buyers. Buyers tend to choose market exit instead of retaliation against sellers after negative experiences.     

'She Has Different Fits to Me': how people with learning difficulties see themselves

People with learning difficulties often appear to experience significant incongruence between their categorical identity as someone with learning difficulties and their self-identity. This paper draws on research undertaken with 60 young adults, and their parents or carers to examine the nature of that incongruence. We conclude that it is based almost entirely in discursive relationships, whereas experiential and power relationships promote incorporation of categorical identity into self-identity. We call for more careful consideration and open discussion of the ways in which the categorical identity of people with learning difficulties is handled in discursive relations with them.     

Where you stand depends on where you sit: Participation and reactions to change

Although a considerable body of research on strategic planning, organizational decision making, and organizational change has emphasized the importance of participation by key stakeholders for the successful management of organizational change, few empirical studies have produced in‐depth understanding of the differing perspectives of stakeholder groups according to their level of involvement in decisions about major change. This case study examines the differing perspectives and perceptions of stakeholders leading into and during the merger of two nonprofit arts organizations. It refines and enriches existing empirical research on the effects of participation on the implementation of change.     

You are what you read. The use of bibliotherapy to facilitate psychotherapy

1. In the course of therapy with individuals or couples, it is sometimes helpful to suggest reading specific material to assist in the therapeutic process. 2. It is important that the therapist be totally familiar with the recommended material and have a specific purpose for the recommendation. 3. The therapeutic interaction, rather than the reading of material, is the focus of the treatment. 4. Such reading may prove helpful because it becomes an educational experience and comprehension of a concept is increased; the material can be "validating" when written by someone unknown to the client who has had a shared experience; and it can remove a struggle for control from the therapeutic relationship by giving information or opinions directly to the client.     

The English as they see others: England revealed in Provence

Peter Mayle's best-selling accounts of his life in Provence have appealed to a wide audience in Britain but have also attracted harsh criticism. It is argued here that these works, although ostensibly about Provence, are better analysed as myths for the English. The contrast with an account from the 1930s reflects wider social change, showing a move from a confidently colonial to a self-consciously ‘anthropological’ mode. Doubts about the authenticity of Mayle's accounts are related both to his use of free indirect discourse and other literary devices in order to convey ethnographic colour, and to ideological tensions in post-colonial Britain.