Transnational Crime and Transnational Policing

This paper reviews the scholarly literature that connects transnational crime and policing through a critical discussion of the terms used to describe them. It is argued that authorized discourses regarding transnational crime are selective and partial. Ultimately, this results in two sorts of failures in contemporary transnational policing. It is a positive failure insofar as the ramping up of policing power in response to a global crime panic has come at the expense of civil liberties and human rights. It is a negative failure insofar as the transnational policing capacity that has been developed is unable to respond to the very real criminological consequences that are part of the downside of globalization. The surveillant assemblage of the emerging global policing security complex is an awesome and unaccountable power legitimitated on the basis of specified folkdevils. However, and despite well-publicized claims to success, due to its own internal organizational pathologies and institutional fragmentation, the policing security complex is capricious. The article concludes by arguing that critical the examination of the concepts that constitute transnational crime and policing is a crucial contribution to theories of global governance.     

Whither Tocqueville in American Sociology?

This essay addresses the declining influence of Alexis de Tocqueville on contemporary American sociology. While Tocqueville was must reading some decades ago, inspiring several classic sociological studies published in the 1950s and 1960s, and while he remains an authoritative source in other social science disciplines, he has virtually disappeared from present-day sociology. Sociologists, it would seem, have left behind works such as Democracy in America and The Old Regime and the French Revolution despite Raymond Aron’s (Main Currents in Sociological Thought, vol. I, Anchor Books, New York, 1968) insistence that Tocqueville be counted among the discipline’s founders. While Meyer (J. Cl. Socio., 3:197–220, 2003) presumed to have addressed this subject, his argument sheds no light on the matter as he ignores the driving concern of Tocqueville’s work, namely, the tensions between the principle of equality and human freedom. I argue that conceptually sociologists today are in no position to reflect critically on equality and its relation to freedom. Since the turbulent 1960s egalitarian commitments have become embedded in the discipline and are thereby shielded from critical inquiry. At the same time, a conceptual fixation on power effectively pushed to the periphery the kinds of questions Tocqueville raised about the problem of authority in democracy and how authority may be encouraging of human freedom. Committed to advancing the principle of equality, however understood, and seeing nothing in authority but power, sociologists espouse faith in egalitarian, mass democracy whereas Tocqueville sought a critical understanding of it. This is much to the detriment of present-day sociologists, so many of whom demonstrate in their own work and professional behavior the democratic dilemmas Tocqueville warned us about.     

Linguistic Markers of Psychological State through Media Interviews: John Kerry and John Edwards in 2004, Al Gore in 2000

What can we learn about presidential candidates by examining their speech in natural conversation? In the present study, the television interviews from the 2004 Democratic presidential primary campaign of John Kerry ( N = 29) and John Edwards ( N = 34) were examined using linguistic analyses. Results indicate that Kerry and Edwards were similar in their use of positive emotion words, but that Kerry used significantly higher rates of negative emotion words than did Edwards. Comparisons with televised interviews of Al Gore from the 2000 presidential campaign ( N = 17) revealed striking similarities in the linguistic styles of Gore and Kerry. Gore's linguistic style overlapped considerably with that of Kerry on pronoun usage and many cognitive domains. This study points to how linguistic analyses can give us a clearer picture of how political candidates think, act, and feel.     

Space and the State

Speculation over the imminent demise of the nation-state has recently given way to a more nuanced understanding of its ongoing transformation under globalising conditions. Far from disappearing, argue some, the state is subject to a process of 'rescaling' whereby its spatial dimensions are being radically reordered. What is emerging to replace post-war welfare states is a new and more complex layering of the spaces of governance.     

19世纪英国军事情报与亚洲地缘战略的建构

沿着福柯关于知识考古学的思路,初步检视一种针对亚洲的独特的殖民知识类型英国军事情报的兴起及其展布,包括具体的知识技术比如路线书和军事报告;这种知识的实践对亚洲空间进行独特编码,生产了相应的档案;19世纪英帝国主义根据这些档案重新组织社会,设计地缘战略,以此支配亚洲空间。     

Are cash transfers the answer for child nutrition in sub‐Saharan Africa? A literature review

Early evidence is ambiguous on the effects of cash transfer programmes on children, but until the last few years there has been little focus on Africa. We review the literature on 20 cash transfer schemes, including 12 from sub‐Saharan Africa. Such interventions have shown improvements in household diet and, in some cases, to agriculture, but have not always improved child health. However, a larger perspective focusing on two key time periods for nutrition—adolescence and the first 1,000 days of life reveals more opportunities for impact. In particular, the opportunity to empower young women to access secondary education and the reduction of adolescent pregnancy rates can improve the health of African children. Cash transfer programmes show promise, though there is room for improvement.