Cross‐Milieu Terrorist Collaboration: Using Game Theory to Assess the Risk of a Novel Threat

This article uses a game‐theoretic approach to analyze the risk of cross‐milieu terrorist collaboration—the possibility that, despite marked ideological differences, extremist groups from very different milieus might align to a degree where operational collaboration against Western societies becomes possible. Based upon theoretical insights drawn from a variety of literatures, a bargaining model is constructed that reflects the various benefits and costs for terrorists’ collaboration across ideological milieus. Analyzed in both sequential and simultaneous decision‐making contexts and through numerical simulations, the model confirms several theoretical arguments. The most important of these is that although likely to be quite rare, successful collaboration across terrorist milieus is indeed feasible in certain circumstances. The model also highlights several structural elements that might play a larger role than previously recognized in the collaboration decision, including that the prospect of nonmaterial gains (amplification of terror and reputational boost) plays at least as important a role in the decision to collaborate as potential increased capabilities does. Numerical simulation further suggests that prospects for successful collaboration over most scenarios (including operational) increase when a large, effective Islamist terrorist organization initiates collaboration with a smaller right‐wing group, as compared with the other scenarios considered. Although the small number of historical cases precludes robust statistical validation, the simulation results are supported by existing empirical evidence of collaboration between Islamists and right‐ or left‐wing extremists. The game‐theoretic approach, therefore, provides guidance regarding the circumstances under which such an unholy alliance of violent actors is likely to succeed.     

The dual-continuum approach: An extension of the contingency theory of strategic conflict management

This article examines the limitations of using a single advocacy-accommodation continuum when depicting organizational stance and movement in conflict situations (Cancel et al., 1997). The authors argue that advocacy and accommodation can vary independently in response to a variety of contingent factors. To comprehensively capture the locations and motions that are possible in organization-public conflicts, a two-continuum approach is proposed. Separate assessment of the effects of contingency variables on advocacy and accommodation can be used to accurately locate organizational stance along advocacy and accommodation continua. Strategic alternatives that cannot be depicted using a single continuum (such as favorable alignment of organization advocacy/public accommodation or unilateral change on the part of one party) can be captured if separate continua are employed. By depicting initial stances and desired directions of movement for both the organization and public, the dual-continuum approach can also provide practical guidance to public relations professionals in selecting strategies for achieving preferred outcomes and evaluating their effectiveness.     

The development of social work education in Russia since 1995

This article presents the findings of a four-year survey on the development of social work education in Russia from 1995 to the present day. Through a series of questionnaires, interviews and discussions with Russian academics, practitioners and students, the study looks at a variety of issues including the high rate of attrition. It focuses on aspects of students’ practice placements such as the type, length and quality of practice placements, the students’ workload and the supervision provided. It also looks at the contribution that international collaboration has made to the development of social work education in Russia.

The survey concludes that there is a need to enhance the overall package for social workers and raise the status of the profession in order to retain qualified personnel. Longer practice placements which start in the first year and are adequately funded and supervised are seen as the key to retaining new graduates. It concludes that although international projects have made a difference to those participating at the time, it is difficult to disseminate these benefits beyond the immediate region. Now that international funding to Russia has been reduced it is critical that any remaining funding is accurately targeted and properly coordinated.     

员工的忠诚、合作与组织的集体创新能力--来自浙江省的实证研究

本文从组织行为学的角度阐述了集体创新理论的发展,并对集体创新的概念进行了界定.在理论上分析了影响企业形成集体创新能力的其中的两个因素(员工的忠诚、合作),在此基础上,建立了理论模型.用浙江省小企业的调查数据从实证上进行验证,得出影响企业集体创新能力的两因素模型.在结果讨论中,对小企业的管理理念提出一些建议.最后指出外部环境处于劣势的小企业,应把企业的集体创新能力作为形成小企业竞争优势的源泉.     

The structure and vulnerability of a drug trafficking collaboration network

Prior research has established that collaboration networks exhibit heavy-tailed degree distributions, assortative degree mixing, and large clustering coefficients. Using court record data, we assess these properties in a collaboration network among heroin traffickers. Consistent with prior research, we find an exponential degree distribution and strong local clustering. However, the traffickers mix dissortatively by degree rather than assortatively. Using a graph sampling method, we show that a consequence of dissortative mixing is that targeted vertex removals have a greater impact on the connectivity and cohesion of the trafficking network. We also note the importance of degree mixing for characterizing and identifying topological weaknesses.     

Promoting Financial Capability of Incarcerated Women for Community Reentry: A Call to Social Workers

ABSTRACT

Female incarceration rates are increasing at unprecedented rates. The majority of women are poor single mothers, serving sentences for nonviolent drug-related and property offenses. Among challenges faced when transitioning back into society are a history of interpersonal violence and financial instability. This study examines literature with regard to the barriers women experience with an emphasis on financial struggles and explores outcomes of one initiative to begin addressing the financial capability of women in a minimum security prison. Findings reveal women benefited from the class experience. Social workers are called upon for additional financial capability programming and research in this area.     

Social Work and Complex Care Systems: The Case of People Hospitalised with a Disability

Health and hospital system reforms prioritise efficiency. However, initiatives can impact on people with new or existing disabilities who require time to maximise functional independence. With greater demands for shorter hospital stays social workers face increasing pressure to facilitate discharge. This paper reports findings from research identifying factors contributing to extended stays for adults with disabilities. We sought to better understand patient characteristics and discharge planning challenges by analysing a clinical dataset of 80 patients and qualitative interviews with five experienced hospital social workers. Three key factors are identified: issues around rehabilitation services; assessment and planning for community care; and availability of and access to discharge options. Strategies to reduce length of stay are reported. We argue that building collaborative partnerships and working across multiple, complex systems and disciplines are vital to ensure these patients access appropriate community-based resources within the current health reform environment.     

Solidarity as a byproduct of professional collaboration: Social support and trust in a coworking space

This article investigates solidarity arising from economic exchange, by studying a multiplex network of collaboration, trust and social support. After a qualitative pre-study, we performed a full-network survey on a group of independent professionals sharing a coworking space and occasionally collaborating with each other. By running multivariate Exponential Random Graph Models, we showed that successful collaboration might not determine expectations of social support. However, these relationships were related to business-based trust ties, which were predicted by collaboration. Our results suggest that solidarity can emerge as a byproduct of peer economic exchange when trust mediates between professional relationships and expressive ties.     

A model for collaboration networks giving rise to a power-law distribution with an exponential cutoff

Recently several authors have proposed stochastic evolutionary models for the growth of complex networks that give rise to power-law distributions. These models are based on the notion of preferential attachment leading to the “rich get richer” phenomenon. Despite the generality of the proposed stochastic models, there are still some unexplained phenomena, which may arise due to the limited size of networks such as protein, e-mail, actor and collaboration networks. Such networks may in fact exhibit an exponential cutoff in the power-law scaling, although this cutoff may only be observable in the tail of the distribution for extremely large networks. We propose a modification of the basic stochastic evolutionary model, so that after a node is chosen preferentially, say according to the number of its inlinks, there is a small probability that this node will become inactive. We show that as a result of this modification, by viewing the stochastic process in terms of an urn transfer model, we obtain a power-law distribution with an exponential cutoff. Unlike many other models, the current model can capture instances where the exponent of the distribution is less than or equal to two. As a proof of concept, we demonstrate the consistency of our model empirically by analysing the Mathematical Research collaboration network, the distribution of which has been shown to be compatible with a power law with an exponential cutoff.     

Shared responsibility and network collaboration in caregiving

Communal coping may benefit caregivers, but most communal coping research focuses on dyads. Using an egocentric network design, we examine caregivers’ we-talk—a linguistic marker of shared responsibility—and caregiver reports of 1) network member involvement in collaborative care roles and 2) met/unmet expectations across typically developing and rare disease contexts. We-talk was linked to involvement in direct care and support, but links of we-talk to decision-making varied based on network member closeness; we-talk was linked to meeting expectations for decision-making only. There were no differences across context, suggesting shared responsibility is linked to collaborative roles across caregiving contexts.