Globalization, Popular Resistance and Postmodernity

This paper asks if globalization is simply the latest reticulation of the regional, class, and cultural struggles embedded at the core of worldwide capitalist exchange. As practices of transnational businesses, national state authorities, and regional growth coalitions turn to globalization rhetorics to promote on-going commercial expansion, new networks of local activists, international migrants, and progressive intellectuals are developing their own anti-global rhetorics and practices to defend themselves, their localities, and the environment. This paper investigates how these conflicts arise, in part, out of the modes of organization at work in the world economy. That is, professional-technical experts with vested interests in the corporate groups or state offices that now organize most forms of production and consumption find their expert authority contested by popular resistances. These essentially populist movements seek to defend the discretion of ordinary people against trained expertise in choosing how localities and individuals attain valued goals, like economic equality, democratic participation, environmental balance, or cultural integrity.     

What discount rate should bankruptcy judges use? Estimates from Canadian reorganization data

Using data from financial reorganization plans filed by insolvent Canadian firms, we estimate the discount rate implicit in the unsecured creditors’ reorganization decision. Using (HARA) utility functions, we find the implicit monthly discount rate of creditors to be 4.9%, which corresponds to an annual discount rate of 77%. This is 7–10 times higher than discount rates used in previous empirical studies of reorganization. The discount rate estimates are robust to a range of assumptions about the degree of risk aversion and the market-to-book-value ratio of assets.     

The Worldwide Search for Techno-thieves: International Competition v. International Co-operation

In an age of explosive worldwide growth of electronic data storage and communications, many vital interests require the effective protection of information. Today's information age requires businesses to compete on a worldwide basis, sharing sensitive information with appropriate parties while protecting that information against competitors, vandals, suppliers, customers, and foreign governments. Elements of the US civilian infrastructure, such as the banking system, the electric power grid, the public switched telecommunications network, and the air traffic control system, are central to so many dimensions of modern life that protecting these elements must have a high priority. Governments have an important stake in assuring that rival nations do not appropriate technology.     

Intelligence agencies and democratisation: Continuity and change in Serbia after Milošević

This article examines the reform of the Serbian intelligence agencies since the fall of Slobodan Milo?evi? and argues that they are important actors in democratisation, with a powerful capacity to influence and frustrate the reform process. However, the Serbian experience demonstrates that the role of intelligence agencies in democratisation is complex. In Serbia, governance of the intelligence sector has been characterised neither by a simple maximisation of civil power over the agencies themselves, nor by outright resistance to change by inherently compromised, authoritarian-era structures. Instead, the role and reform of Serbia's intelligence agencies since 2000 has been closely integrated with developments in the political sphere, and has exhibited considerable continuity with past practice.     

CORPORATE MAKAHIKI: THE GOVERNING TELOS OF PEACE

Lono presided over the annual makahiki celebrations, which where held on the island for four consecutive months, usually from October or November through February or March. This was a time of ritual, sports competition, offerings to the chiefs, divination of the fruitfulness of the coming year, and much feasting and hula. During the makahiki war was forbidden, people did little work and enjoyed themselves. ¹     

Using typologies of victimization worry to create strategies for reducing fear of crime

The purpose of this paper is to develop actionable strategies designed for law enforcement agencies seeking to reduce fear of crime among those living within their jurisdictions. A conjunctive analysis of case configurations is conducted on data collected from residents living in southeast Queensland (Australia) (N = 713) in order to identify context-specific typologies of victimization worry. Main effects for each component of the typologies are examined in order to identify the impact each has on reducing negative attitudes towards crime. Current findings suggest that agencies will likely reduce fear of crime among community residents the most by focusing on decreasing concerns related to the consequences of victimization. Results are consistent for both crimes against persons and property offenses.     

Is it all about race? Intergroup threat and perceptions of racial profiling

Relatively few studies have assessed theoretically relevant predictors of individual’s perceptions of racial profiling by law enforcement officers. The current study addresses this limitation by drawing on theoretical frameworks highlighted in the growing body of literature examining disproportionate minority contact (DMC) with the criminal justice system. Specifically, we draw on the racial and symbolic threat perspectives with the objective of identifying theoretically relevant individual and community level predictors of perceptions of racial profiling by public and private police bodies in airports, malls, and on the roads. Results of our analysis of data on White and Black individuals nested within communities support the racial threat perspective in documenting the influence of racial heterogeneity and interracial labor market competition on perceptions of racial profiling. However, in contention to predictions derived from the symbolic threat perspective, the results fail to uncover a link between interracial socioeconomic inequality and perceptions of racial profiling by law enforcement officers. These results highlight the importance of moving beyond individual explanations of profiling and other forms of DMC and suggest community characteristics and perceptions of intergroup threat are particularly salient to understanding perceptions of race-based distinctions in formal social control.