Between arbitrage and speculation: an economy of belief and doubt

Abstract

The recent debate concerning the 'sociology of arbitrage' has firmly established arbitrage as a category of theoretical significance in the social studies of finance. In this article, I seek to complicate this debate by drawing attention to a particular kind of ambiguity inherent in the category of arbitrage, as it is put to use in financial markets. I present certain Japanese arbitrageurs' reflections on the difference between arbitrage and speculation and examine the interplay of belief and doubt underlying arbitrage operations. I argue that the resulting ambivalence towards the category of arbitrage is a marker of arbitrageurs' particular epistemological stance, identity and ethical commitment. Finally, I consider the implications of arbitrage's ambiguity for the dominant trope of speculation in the critical study of financial markets more broadly.     

Reimagining Sutherland 80 years after white‐collar crime*

Eighty years ago, Edwin H. Sutherland conceptualized and defined white‐collar crime. In this article, I engage retrospectively with Sutherland's ideas and work to emphasize important aspects that continue to guide research today; to note where he was prescient as well as shortsighted. I center this discussion around “corporate crime” or crimes by business. Four main themes are discussed: 1) law and official responses to corporate offending—the data problem, 2) corporate crime and the life cycle of organizations, 3) psychological and trait‐based explanations, and 4) consequences of definitional ambiguity.     

The Ambiguity of Things: Souvenirs from Afghanistan

ABSTRACT

Souvenirs can help illustrate the world-view towards a country under intervention. Following the work of Lisa Smirl, this article analyses a particular set of souvenirs from Afghanistan in order to establish how the intervention there is shaping the imaginary of conflict professionals working in Kabul in the final years of the International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF). Souvenirs are analysed as consistent with established tropes, in the case of Afghanistan dating back to colonial encounters beginning in the early nineteenth century; much of the ‘Othering' knowledge produced is actualized in souvenirs. In a focused analysis of a Scorpion glass, representing a particular type of souvenir, the articles concludes by showing how what souvenirs transmit is ambiguous and depends on different interpretations and meanings attached to them by different audiences. For conflict professionals who buy these items, they are a way to bridge the gap of their home experience and their life in intervention context. Souvenirs can help mitigate the ‘liminal’ existence that many security professionals, aid workers or embassy staff experience during missions in intervened countries. At the same time, they reify the tropes and narratives about the intervened countries and peoples and thus shape the way interventions are understood, conducted and practised.     

Cross-dressing and sex change stories in Spanish illustrated magazines (1928–1936)

During the 1920s and 1930s, the impression that the boundaries between the sexes were increasingly blurring was pervasive in many parts of the world. In Spain, sexual ambiguity often became the focus of public discussions on the upheaval of the traditional gender order. As part of this phenomenon, stories of cross-dressers made good copy in popular illustrated magazines such as Nuevo Mundo, Mundo Gráfico, Estampa, and Crónica, which were the top-sellers of their kind during the interwar period. By analyzing a group of cross-dressing and sex change stories from these periodicals – the way they were told and interpreted – I shed light on the ways in which the perceived fluidity of gender was constructed in a medium that reached a relative large segment of the Spanish population. The journalistic pieces I consider manifested different reactions to sexual ambiguity that ranged from the condemnatory to the matter-of-fact. Regardless, they all contributed – implicitly or explicitly – to undermine essentialist arguments underpinning the ideology of separate spheres of action for men and women. On occasion, these texts put forth an intimation, avant la lettre, of Judith Butler’s notion of the performativity of gender.     

台湾问题：美国对华政策中的两难议题

台湾问题是困扰中美关系的一大难题。美国基于维护台湾海峡两岸不统不独、不战不和的利益考虑,试图对双方采取平衡交往的双轨政策。但这一政策却因美国国内不同利益团体的作用,选举周期的影响,国际战略格局的变化和海峡两岸的政治角力,不时地受到冲击,发生周期性的变化。美国对华政策的周期摇摆性,不利于维持台海现状。1995-1996年的海峡危机和2003-2004年岛内公投、制宪、正名风潮,与美方未能妥善处理台湾这一难题,给台北发出错误信号就有很大关系。     

浅谈语境对二语阅读理解的作用

为了更好地传递信息,人类必须把握住原语言的意义。然而,脱离语境的词义具有歧义性、多义性和模糊性,会导致整个信息传达不准确。语境指真实的语言环境。它是限制语言使用的不同因素的总和。意义理解指正确理解特定材料给出的一定环境下的原语言。它不仅涵盖了对词的理解,还包括对文章的理解。脱离了语境,没有人可以理解任何对象的真义。语境在意义理解中起到束缚和限制的作用。为了得到某个词、句、段的确切意义,就要在语境中研究意义,即"语境中的意义",这对学习二语的人们而言是十分必要的。     

Causes for procrastination in a unique educational workplace

Abstract

Teachers in hospitals are a unique phenomenon. Their students are sick, hospitalized children with a range of physical, emotional, and cognitive needs. Teachers are expected to be dynamic, flexible, creative, open-minded, and efficient to function in the most appropriate manner. However, a recent study showed that these teachers tend to procrastinate on some of the most common tasks that teachers perform on a daily basis in the regular school system. The present study was an initial investigation into the reasons for procrastination in teachers who work in two hospitals in Israel. Thirty-two teachers were interviewed. The findings indicated that the primary reason for procrastination among teachers in the hospital was professional role ambiguity, with emotional factors and situational determinants which were identified. Future research should further explore reasons for procrastination in the workplace, in general, and its association with professional role ambiguity specifically.     

关于汉语语言在讯问笔录中准确使用的若干思考

讯问笔录是一种具有法律效力的文书,对于警方获取证据、全面分析研究案情、定罪量刑、总结办案经验、检查办案质量等各个环节都具有重要作用。然而在办案实践中,讯问笔录制作时汉语语言的使用还存在不少问题,因此我们应当准确使用汉语语言文字,提高讯问笔录的质量,提高公安机关的办案质量。     

Backloading to extinction: Coping with values conflict in the administration of Australia's federal biodiversity offset policy

Policy-makers are frequently required to consider and manage conflicting public values. An example of this in the environmental domain is biodiversity offset policy, which governments worldwide have adopted as a mechanism to balance environmental protection with socio-economic development. However, little work has examined administrative practices underpinning biodiversity offset policy implementation, and how the adoption of coping strategies to manage value conflicts may influence resulting policy outcomes. This study fills this research gap using a case study of Australia's federal biodiversity offset policy under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act 1999. Using data from 13 interviews of federal policy administrators, I show that the introduction of a new policy in 2012 enabled a shift from the use of precedent to a technical approach for setting offset requirements under the EPBC Act. Yet, multiple sources of policy ambiguity remain, and administrators have adopted post-approval condition-setting, or ‘backloading’—a form of cycling, facilitated by structural separation—to defer detailed assessments of offset requirements until after biodiversity losses are approved. Backloading thus undermines the effectiveness of environmental policy and will persist as coping strategy unless policy ambiguity is reduced via legislative amendments and adequate resourcing of biodiversity conservation.

Points for practitioners

• Biodiversity offset policy requires administrators to manage conflicting environmental and socioeconomic values.
• Technical decision tools reduce reliance on case-by-case decision-making, but multiple ambiguities persist.
• Backloading (post-approval condition-setting) defers values conflict, but reduces transparency, accountability, and policy effectiveness.
• Policy ambiguity must be reduced at the political level to facilitate effective biodiversity conservation.