Urge to Gamble in a Simulated Gambling Environment

Cue reactivity, while increasingly recognized as a central feature of drug and alcohol addiction, is not well studied in gambling. We evaluated the urge to gamble in a simulated casino environment among frequent gamblers who alternated between cycles in which they observed others playing ten hands of Blackjack (first, third and fifth cycle) and cycles in which they played ten hands of Blackjack themselves (second and fourth cycle). The played cycles served as a manipulation for the observed cycles in terms of “priming” (having previously gambled in the environment vs. not) and “anticipation” (expecting more opportunities to gamble in the environment vs. not) and, thus, allowed these conditions: observed cycle 1 = anticipation (+) and prime (−); observed cycle 2 = anticipation (+) and prime (+); and observed cycle 3 = anticipation (−) and prime (+). Subjects’ urge to gamble was greater in the gambling environment than in a neutral setting and both positive anticipation and positive priming increased cue reactivity within the gambling environment. The frequency of gambling outside of the study did not affect cue reactivity. However, a preference for Blackjack (vs. other types of gambling) and observing winning (vs. losing) hands were both associated with stronger cue reactivity in the study. These findings contribute to our understanding of pathological gambling.     

Being naked on the internet: young people’s selfies as intimate edgework

In this paper, I examine how young selfie sharers engage in intimate edgework in the visual social media site tumblr. Originally devised by Stephen Lyng, edgework is defined as the purposeful engagement in risky behaviour as a result of the seductive character of the experience, and the rewards of doing so brings. The article is based on data gathered from in-depth, online interviews with 25 young people who post naked self-photographs to their tumblr blogs, and participant observation between mid-2014 and late 2015. Through their online practices, I show how young selfie sharers gain a range of benefits similar to those leveraged by people engaged in archetypal forms of edgework – such as skydivers – without the threat of physical danger. Young people negotiate the societal boundaries of morality/immorality and order/disorder; prepare and deploy specific skills in their edgework; and maintain a perception of control. Through being naked on the internet, young people feel a sense of well-being and belonging, thus engaging in ‘intimate edgework’. This article answers the call for further development of a feminist model of edgework that uproots its original hegemonic masculine ideals by elaborating on how individuals negotiate emotional edges in the digital age.     

Autonomy and resilience in cultural work: looking beyond the ‘creative industries’

How do cultural workers deal with the tension between autonomy and control in their working lives? One answer, advanced in this journal by Mark Banks in 2010, is that cultural autonomy provides scope for self-realisation, and potentially for ways of working that challenge commercial and managerial constraints. It allows those with critical inclinations to resist unpalatable controls and initiate processes of struggle which may deliver improvements in the conduct and experience of work. More recent empirical studies have cast doubt on this interpretation, pointing to patterns of instrumental behaviour and conforming autonomy that reinforce earlier images of controlled or self-interested ‘creatives’. With most of the relevant research focused on commercial contexts, this article considers whether publicly funded art provides more fertile terrain for the destabilising autonomy thesis. Four years of fieldwork with community arts practitioners in Scotland and Northern Ireland captures the everyday pressures of struggling to survive and to resist neoliberal cultural policies, managerial controls and fluctuating incomes. It also reveals collective capacities to intervene that are consistent with the Banks image of dissenting activists for change. The abiding impression at the end of the research is of grinding struggle rather than progressive change, however, or even sustained relief.     

Can study tours help promote evidence-based practice in children's services?

Interest in evidence-based programmes and the science underpinning them has mushroomed in the UK and Ireland in recent years as policy-makers and senior managers seek tried-and-tested methods of improving child well-being. This article examines whether study tours, a form of experiential learning, can help to promote evidence-based policy and practice in children's services. Participants on two study tours to the United States in 2005 to visit evidence-based programmes and their developers were interviewed by telephone 30–36 months later. Results are presented in terms of: (1) what participants felt they were exposed to on the study tours; (2) how the tours had changed their thinking; (3) what impact the tours had in terms of actions; (4) the factors that affected the impact of the study tours; and (5) the value added by the study tours over and above other means of learning about evidence and evidence-based services.     

A note on the stability of Chen’s Lindahl mechanism

There are no general theoretical results on the stability of the Lindahl mechanism introduced by Chen (Econ Theory 19:773–790, 2002). We show that despite not fitting the requirements of the Milgrom and Roberts 1990 stability result for supermodular games, if the Chen mechanism induces a supermodular game, then the best reply map is a contraction. This gives us an easy to identify sufficient condition for dynamic stability of equilibrium.     

Cajoling or coercing: would electoral engineering resolve the young citizen–state disconnect?

The relationships between citizens and their states are undergoing significant stresses across advanced liberal democracies. In Britain, this disconnect is particularly evident amongst young citizens. This article considers whether different electoral engineering methods – designed either to cajole or compel youth to vote – might arrest the decline in their political engagement. Data collected in 2011 from a national survey of 1025 British 18-year-olds and from focus groups involving 86 young people reveal that many young people claim that they would be more likely to vote in future elections if such electoral reforms were implemented. However, it is questionable whether or not such increased electoral participation would mean that they would feel truly connected to the democratic process. In particular, forcing young people to vote through the introduction of compulsory voting may actually serve to reinforce deepening resentments, rather than engage them in a positive manner.     

Mental Illness and the Criminal Justice System

This is the second essay in a two‐part series exploring the relationships between mental illness, criminal behavior, and the criminal justice system. The number of mentally ill persons in prisons and jails has increased substantially over the last several decades, and there are currently more people with mental illness behind bars than there are in mental hospitals. In this essay, we place these trends within a broader historical context of the social control of mental illness in the United States. We identify how and why mentally ill persons have come to be overrepresented in the criminal justice system and highlight the unique challenges this population poses for police, courts, and correctional facilities. Finally, we review several recent innovations in policy and practice that may help alleviate that burden of criminal justice involvement on mentally ill offenders, as well as the burden of mentally ill offenders on the criminal justice system.     

“An Army of Civil Servants”: Max Weber and Émile Durkheim on Socialism

This paper is a comparison of the views of Max Weber and Émile Durkheim on socialism; these two have yet to be compared on this topic. They offered shared critiques of socialism, but differed in assessment of its overall worth, with Durkheim being more welcoming. After considering possible explanations for this divergence I argue it reflects the contrasting methodologies adopted by both. Whilst Weber places questions of the “value” of socialism solely in the conscious of the individual, and therefore beyond sociology, Durkheim sees this as a social question and therefore part of the practical concerns of sociologists.