Ethnicity,Islam, and Pakistani Public Opinion toward the Pakistani Taliban

This article argues that an Islamist militant group with a relatively homogenous ethnic make-up is more likely to be supported by those of the same ethnicity even if the group makes no reference to and even downplays the importance of ethnicity. Using survey data from an original survey carried out in Pakistan in 2013, with 7,656 respondents, this hypothesis is tested in a multiple regression analysis of support for the Pakistani Taliban. The results demonstrate that co-ethnicity between the respondent and the Islamist militant group is the most important predictor of support for the militant group.     

Current understandings of suicide survivor issues: research, practice, and plans. Report of the 1st International Suicide Postvention Seminar, September 8, 2006, Portoroz, Slovenia

The goals of the Postvention Taskforce of the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) are to increase awareness of postvention and survivor issues. One of the strategies is to organize meetings. We report on the 1st International Suicide Postvention Seminar, held as a 1-day preevent at the 11th European Symposium on Suicide and Suicidal Behavior in Portoroz, Slovenia, September 2006. The seminar provided a state of the art review of the postvention field, with plenary presentations on research, psychotherapeutic care, development of national networks, and of postvention materials. We summarize the presentations below.     

Political Fact-Checking on Twitter: When Do Corrections Have an Effect?

Research suggests that fact checking corrections have only a limited impact on the spread of false rumors. However, research has not considered that fact-checking may be socially contingent, meaning there are social contexts in which truth may be more or less preferred. In particular, we argue that strong social connections between fact-checkers and rumor spreaders encourage the latter to prefer sharing accurate information, making them more likely to accept corrections. We test this argument on real corrections made on Twitter between Janurary 2012 and April, 2014. As hypothesized, we find that individuals who follow and are followed by the people who correct them are significantly more likely to accept the correction than individuals confronted by strangers. We then replicate our findings on new data drawn from November 2015 to February, 2016. These findings suggest that the underlying social structure is an important factor in the correction of misinformation.     

Innovation Policy as Performativity—the Case of Sweden

This article analyzes how the idea of “innovationism” in Sweden has generated a new kind of idea-driven policy around the creation of innovative regional policy. In contrast to similar policies in this area, this policy does not manifest itself through traditional instruments, but evolves through symbolic and ritual performances, in particular through events and conferences. The article asks how this emerging idea has changed the existing institutional formation of sponsoring industrially relevant research. The vision of concerted action between decision-makers within modern innovationism reinforces territorial identity, but it also tends to devolve responsibility to the regional level since concerted action on the national level is hard to obtain. What emerges is a system of governing at a distance where different actors perform their roles according to often academic ideas of innovationism. The study is based on two qualitative studies in Sweden entailing both documentary sources and semi-structured interviews.     

Rent-seeking,political influence and inequality: A simple analytical example

A simple model allowing an analysis of the interaction between economic policy decisions and rent-seeking by private agents competing for political influence, is developed. Rent-seeking may be of the directly unproductive type, requiring resources that are withdrawn from productive activities, or it may manifest itself as income transfers (corruption) to political decisionmakers. In the political-economic equilibrium of the model the extent of rent-seeking, economic policy decisions, income inequality, etc. are endogenously determined.     

Reconfiguring Chinese Propaganda and Control Modalities: A case study of Shanghai's television system

China's television industry has experienced a number of internal changes that have shaped this system's structure into the new millennium. The Chinese Government has reconfigured the propaganda and control modalities of this industry to allow television to become the prime mover for economic reform. A case study of Shanghai's dynamic television system from 1995 to 1999 is used to understand the changes that have taken place. This analysis provides an understanding of how the Chinese Government policy changes impact on the interrelatedness of the system's components. The consequences of these changes have had dramatic and lasting effects on the way the television industry operates in China. These effects have serious implications for foreign organisations, that are attempting to find a foothold in this booming industry, and for the Chinese television viewer.