Inconsistency between educational attainment and literacy: The case of Russia

From the moment when wide spread of large scale assessments in sociology and economics began, the most commonly used indicators of peoples’ qualifications are the number of years spent in education and the possession of a high school/college/university diploma. But what if these formal indicators are unreliable under certain conditions and do not reflect actual literacy and competency of people? This article, drawing on data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), questions accuracy of the basic educational indicators in Russia. There is a linear relationship between the possession of a formal graduation diploma and the measurement of PIAAC literacy of the able-bodied population in OECD countries, including the Eastern European ones. However, the analysis shows that in Russia there is an inconsistency between literacy and formal educational status. This fact in itself casts doubt on the effectiveness of formal education indicators in Russia. The social implications resulting from this inconsistency become apparent through an international comparison of research results. These ill effects have been documented in the areas of employment, education and social reproduction and in the social self-awareness of the Russian people.     

A multifaceted,multijurisdictional, multiagency,and multidisciplinary approach to investigating unidentified and missing persons cases in Australia

Currently, there are approximately 750 unidentified human remains and 2500 long-term missing persons in Australia. The Australian Federal Police National DNA Program for Unidentified and Missing Persons (Program) is using a multifaceted, multijurisdictional, multiagency, and multidisciplinary approach in a dedicated effort to identify these unknown deceased persons, scientifically link them to known missing persons, and provide answers to their families. The nationally coordinated Program provides its police, forensic, and coronial stakeholders with a suite of contemporary forensic technologies, databases, and experts to forensically examine the skeletonised remains and recover post-mortem data for comparison to the available ante-mortem data for each missing person. Through a number of physical and virtual public outreach activities, families with missing relatives have been encouraged to provide vital ante-mortem forensic information, records, and samples to aid the identification process. To date, this unique Program has assisted to resolve a number of unidentified and missing persons cases from both historical and contemporary contexts, using a combination of genetic and non-genetic techniques, and local and national databases. The centralisation of Program capabilities, expertise, and resources to conduct this type of unique and challenging casework is proving to be the most effective and efficient way to generate investigative leads, identify human remains, and resolve long-term missing persons cases in Australia.     

利德尔·哈特“间接路线”战略析论

“间接路线”战略不仅是利德尔·哈特军事思想的鲜明标志,更是其精髓与集大成之作。哈特在“一战”中的惨痛经历和英译本《孙子兵法》对“间接路线”战略的产生影响重大,它有这四大特点:同时强调物质因素与精神因素的意义、推崇机动性与突然性的结合、战略与大战略并重、具体方法与普遍理念共存。然而与我国的军事战略思想相比,“间接路线”战略也存在着两大缺陷,即对歼灭战和游击战的认识过于主观与片面。     

Can someone fabricate verifiable details when planning in advance? It all depends on the crime scenario

In the current study we examined the effect of having the opportunity to plan an alibi in advance on the suitability of the verifiability approach in two crime scenarios that differed in their opportunity to carry out innocent activities at the time of the crime. One hundred and two participants imagined being involved in stealing money either from a café at a time when it was open (allows innocent activities) or from a bank at a time when it was closed (does not allow innocent activities). We asked participants about their strategies and difficulties in preparing a verifiable alibi in advance, and to write down their prepared alibis. The participants in both groups found this task difficult and did not differ in the difficulties they experienced, however they differed in their strategies (plans to include true witnesses) and actual success in the task. Participants in the Café scenario provided 30% more verifiable details than the participants in the Bank scenario. Strategies and difficulties mentioned by the participants are presented in the paper, and the implications of the study's results on the application of the verifiability approach are discussed.     

Criminal heterarchy and its critics: governance and the making of insecurity in Colombia

ABSTRACT

The FARC, Colombia’s oldest and biggest guerrilla organisation, has long been constructed as the country’s public enemy number one, an enemy that is increasingly portrayed as an outright criminal actor who abandoned all political ambitions. This image of the FARC as a criminal threat to the Colombian state and society is central to a broader turn towards criminalisation in Colombian politics. Through the lens of a critical governance perspective and the notion of the state’s discursive selectivity this article analyses turning points during which the construction of Colombian society’s criminal enemies became a driving force in the country’s security governance. Which social forces support the implementation of criminalising forms of security governance and how? What are the social and political consequences of the latter? In answering these questions, the article argues that the war on (guerrilla) crime assumes a ‘productive’ role for Colombia’s formal democracy.     

Online crisis communication response: A case study of fraudulent banking transactions in South Africa

Abstract

The emergence and advancement of information technology – specifically the replacement of face-toface services with innovative self-service technology, such as banking transactions on the Internet – is forcing companies to adopt a proactive approach to online crisis communication response, and to combine the management and control of online messages during a crisis. In the financial services industry, deregulation and the rapid growth in technology have removed entry barriers in the online environment, forcing financial institutions to transform from the traditional brick-and-mortar to click-and-mortar service delivery, while at the same time allaying customers’ fears (and the perceived risk) of fraudulent online transactions. Although studies have been conducted on the adoption, use, perceived risk and purchase intention of self-service technology, limited research has examined the knowledge management of an online crisis communication response. Knowledge management, which focuses on the acquisition, transfer and assimilation of information, is one way in which to manage messages effectively before, during and after an online crisis communication response situation. The main aim of this article is to identify and characterise typologies of the management and control of messages in an online crisis communication response, through an interpretative and critical analysis of fraudulent websites, based on the main premises of the knowledge management approach. This is done through a case study approach: the website of one of the top ten banks in South Africa was studied in terms of it dealt with fraudulent banking transactions, specifically from the knowledge management paradigm.     

Different farming styles behind the homogenous soy production in southern Brazil

Soy is often perceived as a typical example of a homogenous capitalist agricultural model that is responsible for ecological damage and social conflicts. But this monolithic perception of soy production can be challenged: more than 30 percent of the soy producers in Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil) are family farmers. In this contribution, we study soy production, the soy producers and their institutional environment from an actor-oriented perspective. We have uncovered different farming styles behind soy production: the colonial farmer, the niche farmer and the entrepreneurial farmer. The farming styles differ from each other not only in the farming system, but also in attitudes (for example, towards the forest). We found that the institutional environment and the technology are mainly focused on the entrepreneurial farmer. However, also, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) neglect the existence of small-scale soy producers. These results have several repercussions for further analysis of this problematic crop and how it can shift towards a more sustainable agricultural production model as small-scale farmers might produce soy more sustainably.     

十年回顾:服务型政府的研究方式、脉络及趋势——以《中国行政管理》2002-2011年的文献为例

本文以《中国行政管理》2002-2011年的文献为例,绘制了服务型政府十年研究成果图,并在此基础上梳理了服务型政府的研究方式,分析了其研究脉络,回顾了过去的研究成果,展望了未来探索研究趋势,力图推动完善服务型政府建设体系的发展。     

以就业为导向的高职英语口语的测试方法探索

语言测试在学界的不断论证之下,经过多个阶段的发展已经形成几类测试方法。通过进行语言测试发展不同阶段的比较以及交际性语言测试特点的分析,发现交际性语言测试是以就业为导向的高职英语口语教学要求相适应的有效的测试方法,并提出有效可行的测试方式和评分方法。