Advances in research on illicit networks

This paper introduces the contributions included in the special issue of ‘Advances in Research on Illicit Networks’. It situates the collection of papers in the growing trend of studies applying network methods to illicit networks.     

Social networks and mass media as mobilizers and demobilizers: A study of turnout at a German local election

This paper explores the impact of informal communication in voters’ social networks and the formal communication of the mass media on individuals’ propensity to take part in elections. Analyzing survey data from a recent local election in Germany it shows how both forms of communication may not only mobilize, but also demobilize voters. On the whole, personal communication appears more influential than mass communication. The media’s effects are generally weaker than those of social networks. Moreover, they are mediated by attitudes, while social networks have strong direct effects. These originate mainly from information conveyed through personal contact with voters and abstainers in one’s immediate social environment. Social voting norms are only influential, if they originate from persons’ families and are in favor of electoral participation.     

互联网对社会关系的影响：争议与方向

关于互联网对社会关系影响的研究正在成为学术热点。早期一些学者争论这种行为领域是否能够产生一种通常意义上的持续的人际关系；其次争论的是这种关系是“疏离”还是“延伸”了日常人际关系；以及对关于网络互动所支持的关系属性的研究。系列研究表明，网络互动可以产生具有高度信任、互惠和广泛支持性的人际关系。而这种关系并不必然“疏离”或“延伸”日常关系，其对后者的影响由多种因素综合决定。网络互动倾向于形成弱纽带，但不排斥强纽带的产生。进一步研究可以关注：借助于电脑网络形成的社会关系的动态发展过程、这些社会网络的属性和结构、对社会资本的生产与再生产的影响等等。     

东亚国家跨区域双边FTA的多样化动机分析

从东亚国家双边FTA伙伴选择的范围来看,伙伴国不属于本地区的的情况在大大增加。以中国、日本、韩国、新加坡和东盟为例,展现东亚各国区域FTA和跨区域FTA并行发展的现实。跨区域FTA政策动机包括经济动机、安全和外交动机和平衡动机,而每一种动机又有自己的具体内涵。跨区域FTA的发动已经内化为东亚经济一体化的一个组成部分,对东亚区域经济一体化格局和进程带来实质性的影响。为最大化我国的综合利益,应尽早明确中国的跨区域FTA战略。     

Mass Media and Politics

Although Howard Becker defines art worlds as networks of cooperating people and a broad range of studies has applied this idea of the network to art markets, research on fairs remains a neglected issue. This article aims to advance the idea of the network and the art fair with regard to the art fair boom, the differentiation of art fairs and their interlinking, and the role of networks with regard to the participating galleries and their interlinking within art fairs. Quantitative and qualitative data are brought forward to shed some light on these issues, including statistical information, along with interviews.     

International Plug 'n Play? Citizen Activism, the Internet, and Global Public Policy

One of the most dramatic changes in world politics has been the rise to prominence of citizen networks. Among the many factors responsible for their emergence are new communication technologies, and in particular the World-Wide Web. Opinions on the nature and significance of these citizen networks, however, are mixed. Some applaud citizen networks as potential counter-hegemonic forces and expressions of democratic participation. Others see them, on the contrary, as undemocratic and largely destructive. Straddling both of these views is a third argument that suggests "real" communities cannot be sustained on the Internet, hence calling into question the long-term viability of citizen networks as actors on the world political stage. To help push these debates further, this article examines the case of the citizen networks that emerged to lobby against the Multilateral Agreement on Investments, focusing in particular on how the Internet played a part in the opposition movement. The case suggests that, contrary to those who see new media as an obstacle to global citizen etworks, the Internet and World-Wide Web greatly facilitated their activities. As a consequence, citizen networks will likely continue to grow and expand, intruding into international policymaking processes. The article concludes by examining several global public policy issues that are raised by this shift in the landscape of world politics that will have to be addressed by practitioners of international relations in years to come.     

Collective Political Action as Civic Voluntarism: Analysing Ethnic Associations as Political Participants by Translating Individual-level Theory to the Organizational Level

This article presents and empirically evaluates an analytical experiment in which we seek to translate individual-level explanations of differences in political participation to an organizational level. Utilizing the Civic Voluntarism Model, we analyse the consequences of voluntary associations’ politically valuable ‘resources’, ‘motivation’, and ‘recruitment networks’. Using data from a survey of ethnic associations in Stockholm, Sweden, results suggest that the overall logic of how associational-level political participation is encouraged resembles corresponding mechanisms on the individual level. We conclude that both our theoretical argument and empirical findings merit further analyses of civil society actors’ political participation with the approach taken in this study.     

Shadow peacebuilders and diplomatic counterinsurgencies: informal networks,knowledge production and the art of policy-shaping

ABSTRACT

This article explores the role of informal networks in producing strategic knowledge and influencing policy responses to the 2011 post-election crisis in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The analytical focus is on networks of shadow peacebuilders, defined as actors who are often not visible to the public and who promote a mix of altruistic and personal interests of their broader network by generating strategic narratives and influencing peacebuilding policy. As this article shows, shadow peacebuilders engage in diplomatic counterinsurgencies waged by means of diplomacy, politics, public relations and legal means. Strategic narratives are instrumental in legitimizing diplomatic counterinsurgency, inducing internal cohesion within the network and delegitimizing alternative narratives and policy solutions. Yet the production of strategic knowledge by shadow peacebuilders has its limitations. When the gap between strategic narrative and actions becomes too big, the network risks fragmentation and defeat by other networks that promote alternative strategic narratives and paths of action in the battle over control of peacebuilding policy.     

Advocating within and outside the shadow of hierarchy: local government responses to Melbourne’s outer suburban deficits

Where urban and regional development processes create deficits in infrastructure, services or employment, governments are expected to respond. One specific dimension is local government advocacy within a multi-tiered state. Although democratically proximate to residents, local government represents a creature of higher government tiers and is subject to the centralist ‘shadow of hierarchy’. To interpret whether advocacy is stunted by hierarchical influences, a distinction is drawn between passive, active and aggressive advocacy. Using interviews conducted with outer Melbourne’s growth area councils, the paper evidences the multidimensional and evolving nature of local and regional advocacy within the shadow. Illustrative of intra-sector variation, some peripheral councils have stepped beyond the metaphoric shadows and adopted politically confrontational or aggressive advocacy. Overarching conceptual framings must be appreciative of spatial and temporal variation in local government advocacy, and the local embeddedness of all government tiers through representative structures.     

Similarity between deviant peers: Developmental trends in influence and selection*

The association between an adolescent's own behavior and that of his or her peers remains a key empirical finding in the study of delinquency, and this similarity is often explained in criminology by invoking processes of social influence and homophily. Adolescence is a period of rapid change for both individuals and their surroundings, however, and influence and homophily are often discussed without attending to their development over time. In the current study, I employ longitudinal social network models to estimate social influence and homophily related to alcohol and cigarette use and to determine whether there is change in the strength of these processes. Furthermore, I test whether the broader social environment conditions these processes and their observed changes. The results from this study indicate that although influence from peers decreases from early to mid-adolescence, homophily on drinking and smoking increases. There is also evidence that school-level opportunities and expectations affect social influence and homophily but do not account for the average changes observed in these processes.