Biopower and geopolitics as Russia’s neighborhood strategies: reconnecting people or reaggregating lands?

In this article, we address geopolitics and biopower as two different yet mutually correlative discursive strategies of sovereign power in Russia. We challenge the dominant realist approaches to Russia’s neighborhood policy by introducing the concept of biopolitics as its key element, which makes analysis of political relations in the post-Soviet area more nuanced and variegated. More specifically, we address an important distinction between geopolitical control over territories and management of population as two of Russia’s strategies in its “near abroad.”     

Helping to sort the liars from the truth‐tellers: The gradual revelation of information during investigative interviews

Research examining detection of verbal deception reveals that lay observers generally perform at chance. Yet, in the criminal justice system, laypersons that have not undergone specialist investigative training are frequently called upon to make veracity judgements (e.g., solicitors; magistrates; juries). We sought to improve performance by manipulating the timing of information revelation during investigative interviews. A total of 151 participants played an interactive computer game as either a truth‐teller or a deceiver, and were interviewed afterwards. Game information known to the interviewer was revealed either early, at the end of the interview, or gradually throughout. Subsequently, 30 laypersons individually viewed a random selection of interviews (five deceivers and five truth‐tellers from each condition), and made veracity and confidence judgements. Veracity judgements were most accurate in the gradual condition, p < .001, η² = .97 (above chance), and observers were more confident in those judgements, p < .001, η² = .99. Deceptive interviewees reported the gradual interviews to be the most cognitively demanding, p < .001; η² = .24. Our findings suggest that the detection of verbal deception by non‐expert observers can be enhanced by employing interview techniques that maximize deceivers' cognitive load, while allowing truth‐tellers the opportunity to respond to evidence incrementally.     

Eigenverantwortung statt wohlfahrtsstaatlicher Absicherung

In den Diskussionen um die Grenzen des Wohlfahrtsstaats wird zunehmend von einer Rekommodifizierung gesprochen. Konstatiert wird, dass sich ein Wandel in der arbeitsmarktpolitischen Eingliederung vollzieht, der auf einer normativen Aufwertung von Eigenverantwortung beruht. Wie weit dieser Wandel geht und wie er zu deuten ist, wird indes kontrovers debattiert. Diese Frage wird aufgegriffen und hinsichtlich ihrer Bedeutung für gesellschaftliche Teilhabe diskutiert. Die These ist, dass sich mit dem Gestaltwandel sozialer Absicherung erwerbsbezogene Absicherungsmodi und ihre stratifizierende Wirkung ver?ndern. Die auf aktivierende Eigenverantwortung zielende Wohlfahrtsstrategie bricht, so gilt es zu zeigen, weitgehend mit den bislang gültigen Zielen der Lebensstandard- und Statussicherung. Sie mündet in eine Prekarisierung materieller und institutioneller Teilhabe und verweist daher auf eine steigende Bedeutung von Erwerbsarbeit für gesellschaftliche Teilhabe.     

Escape from the Laboratory: Ethnographic Methods in the Study of Elder and Family Court Mediation

The randomized control trial and pre/post research designs are commonly used in applied research and provide common standards for mediation evaluation research. These approaches have many benefits, particularly for evaluating whether mediation as an experimental intervention works or not. Scholars and practitioners, however, want to know not only whether mediation can work as expected but also how it works in a range of real‐world contexts over time. In these contexts, ideal experimental conditions are less likely to occur. Challenges include such circumstances as the following: the number of cases suitable for statistical comparison is insufficient; researchers lack control over how mediation is implemented; researchers lack clear, objective variables to measure; and the variability of mediation outcomes when studied over time makes it difficult to draw conclusions about them. My research has involved each of these challenges, and I have used ethnographic research as a way to evaluate mediation in these contexts. In this article, I explain ethnographic methods and present two studies as examples of mediation evaluation research that began with a standard program evaluation design, and then incorporated ethnography to allow more complete data collection and analysis. My purpose here is not to argue that experimental methods in mediation evaluation research should be displaced but rather to demonstrate how ethnographic methods can be used when the conditions necessary for standard evaluation cannot be met. The two studies used as examples are from an elder mediation study in Ghana and a family court mediation study in the United States.     

The Return of Prejudice in Europe's Regions: The Moderated Relationship between Group Threat and Economic Vulnerability

Using data from 16 countries and employing multilevel analysis that encompasses the national, regional, and individual levels, we find that both economic and social factors trigger anti-immigrant attitudes among Europeans. Regional per capita GDP is positively correlated with tolerant attitudes while the regional unemployment rate drives prejudice. We find a moderating relationship between immigrant population size and per capita GDP, which suggests that, as the size of the immigrant population increases, prejudice rises but only in poorer regions. In more affluent regions, an increase in the immigrant population corresponds to increased tolerance.     

The Creative Commons licences through moral rights provisions in French law

Since 2002, Creative Commons has been continuously evolving in order to create a licensing scheme that not only fulfils the needs of the author but also stays compatible with already existing national copyright laws. The extent of the respect of moral rights provisions has always been highlighted during the licences’ evolution. This Article first examines whether moral rights are expressly mentioned in the licences and if so, what their treatment is. Each element of the moral rights in the French system will be considered in order to verify their compatibility with the Creative Commons licences. In this context, it will be also asserted whether some existing clauses in the licence contradict with the moral rights of authors. The Article will conclude that although a more flexible interpretation of moral rights provisions is needed when dealing with open content licences, it is essential that Creative Commons addresses the aspects of the licences that are identified as problematic in relation to moral rights. Finally, it will be demonstrated that regardless of the legal status of the licences, the authors' responsibility towards their rights is what will ultimately be the safeguard of their creations' path.     

Cultivated ties and strategic communication: do international environmental secretariats tailor information to increase their bureaucratic reputation?

International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics - The past few years have witnessed a growing interest among scholars and policy-makers in the interplay of international...     

Coalition formation on the U.S. Supreme Court: 1969–2009

We apply a fallback model of coalition formation to decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court, focusing on the seven natural courts, which had the same members for at least two terms, between 1969 and 2009. The predictions of majority coalitions on each of the courts are generally borne out by the 5–4 decisions, whereas the predictions of the Martin-Quinn (Political Analysis 10(2):134–153, 2002) model, which assumes a single underlying dimension along which the justices can be ordered, are not. The present model also provides insight into the dynamic process by which subcoalitions build up into majority coalitions and, in addition, identifies “kingmakers” and “leaders” on the natural courts. Furthermore, it provides evidence, from coalitional memberships, that a few justices shifted over time from one ideological camp to another.     

The Sources of Pension Reforms in Western Europe: Domestic Factors,Policy Diffusion,or Common Shock?

Existing research has linked the adoption of pension reforms to demographic pressures, party ideology, and the diffusion of social policy ideas. We argue that pension policy change in Western Europe is also related to the “shock” of European Monetary Union (EMU). We use a Spatial Autoregressive Probit model with event-history features to test whether the decision to reform can be best explained by domestic factors, diffusion dynamics, or similar exposure to a common shock. We find that EMU made pension reform more likely for low and moderately indebted countries in the early 1990s but delayed reform in the late 1990s. Demographic pressures and policy diffusion also mattered for reform adoption, but not more than the EMU shock.     

Is the USSR dead? Experience from the financial and economic crisis of 2008–2009

The paper examines the economic linkages between the post-Soviet states from the point of view of the financial and economic crisis of 2008–2009. It aims to find out whether the interdependence between the countries of the former Soviet Union is still large enough that crises in individual countries affect the economic development in the neighboring states, and assesses the impact of the crisis itself on the linkages between the former Soviet republics. The evidence is mixed: while some channels of interdependence deteriorated over the last decade, others became more important, and some were even strengthened by the crisis itself.