Reply to my critics

ABSTRACT

This paper offers an overview of the central argument of my book, Territorial Sovereignty, and replies to four critics.     

Knowledge is Power: A Theory-Based Approach to Reducing School Violence

The study assesses the impact of a theory-based school violence program though a survey of 1,500 middle and high school students. It is the first to apply the concept of optimistic bias within the school violence context. Despite high profile school shootings, the students maintained the belief that violence was less likely to happen to them (personally) or in their schools than elsewhere in the country. Findings indicate that optimistic bias can be reduced through educational campaigns, and suggest a means of reducing violence by first reducing optimistic bias.     

Experiential training for real-life professional impact: the formation of professional identity in trainee solicitors through a discrete intervention course on ethics and lawyering skills

The apprenticeship model of solicitor training in Ireland is split between time spent in the law firm and time spent in professional education at the Law Society of Ireland. Learning in law is a process of shaping identity and becoming part of a community, and professional socialisation is a key aspect of this professional development. However, many trainees arrive at the vocational training stage with little or no understanding of how their personal morals and ethics will impact on their future roles as lawyers. This article relates to an intervention study in the Law Society of Ireland with trainee solicitors at professional legal education level in the form of a two-month course entitled “Certificate in Legal Ethics and Lawyering Skills”. This intervention embraces an experiential learning approach and a wide view of ethics that moves beyond a defensive rule-based approach and supports trainees in grappling with ethics and negotiating within the more rigid and collectively based moral discourses which are a necessary part of constructing professional identity. The course framework embraced a variety of pedagogic approaches for effective teaching and fostering ethical professional identity such as role-play, small group discussion, video and online discussion forums and mixed method assessment.     

社会工作介入“受艾滋病影响的失依儿童”抗逆力养成——基于河南省ZMD市的循证研究

本文在社会工作视域下检视受艾滋病影响的失依儿童的抗逆力。本文发现这些儿童表现出生成的差异性、养成的向光性和实践的断裂性等特质。坚持循证实践,依据解构困境、建构意义、重构生活、整合资源的逻辑,进行社会工作专业干预,能有效地促进服务对象抗逆力的提升。     

Northern Irish legal education after Brexit

ABSTRACT

In this article we argue that the impact of Brexit on the law schools in Northern Ireland is tied to the “unique circumstances” of legal education in this part of the world. Legal education in Northern Ireland is likely to develop to become even more distinctive than that in other parts of the UK. Although there are two distinct jurisdictions on the island, they are deeply entangled by shared history and geographical proximity that make cross-border practice a daily reality. These circumstances seem likely to drive the trajectory of the development of legal education in Northern Ireland. Indeed, EU law is likely to remain a component of the Northern Irish qualifying law degree. The potential for the development of law specific to Northern Ireland under backstop arrangements is another significant driver for the future orientation of legal education in this jurisdiction. Legal education in Northern Ireland is, therefore, likely to become noticeably more “European” than that in other parts of the UK.     

Holding parties responsible at election time: Multi-level,multi-party government and electoral accountability

This paper highlights the crucial role played by party-specific responsibility attributions in performance-based voting. Three models of electoral accountability, which make distinct assumptions regarding citizens' ability to attribute responsibility to distinct governing parties, are tested in the challenging Northern Ireland context – an exemplar case of multi-level multi-party government in which expectations of performance based voting are low. The paper demonstrates the operation of party-attribution based electoral accountability, using data from the 2011 Northern Ireland Assembly Election Study. However, the findings are asymmetric: accountability operates in the Protestant/unionist bloc but not in the Catholic/nationalist bloc. This asymmetry may be explained by the absence of clear ethno-national ideological distinctions between the unionist parties (hence providing political space for performance based accountability to operate) but the continued relevance in the nationalist bloc of ethno-national difference (which limits the scope for performance politics). The implications of the findings for our understanding of the role of party-specific responsibility attribution in performance based models of voting, and for our evaluation of the quality of democracy in post-conflict consociational polities, are discussed.     

陕北时期张闻天的重要历史贡献

张闻天是中国共产党相当重要历史时期的一位重要领导人，在陕北时期主持和参与中央工作。为中国共产党制定和确立抗日民族统一战线策略路线，处置突发重大事件，确定和贯彻人民军队抗日战略方针。抵制王明右倾错误、坚持独立自主原则作出了重要历史贡献，是中共历史上一位推动战略转变的伟人。     

Victims of Irish Republican Paramilitary Violence—The Case of “The Disappeared”

Throughout the history of Northern Ireland's (NI) “Troubles,” over 3,800 individuals were killed, with between 40,000 to 100,000 individuals injured, leaving many families and communities struggling with the aftermath. In recent times a particular category of victims and survivors has been politically active and thus featured prominently in the media: “The Disappeared.” This label has come to represent the victims of paramilitary groups whose remains were secretly disposed of. Through a long public and political battle the families of the Disappeared have achieved a measure of political success resulting in the establishment of the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains (ICLVR). Achieving political voice is not the only or perhaps the most significant difficulty encountered by these families. Their experiences in fact epitomise the complexity of the conflict and divisions in NI society and reflect the dominant issues of loyalty, identity, and importantly—silence. Throughout The Troubles, this silence and related notions of loyalty permeated all levels of society: at a community level which included the response of the church; at a statutory level including the response from social services and police; and, at a political level including local political processes but also departments within the British and Irish governments. This article examines the experiences of the families of the Disappeared through a multilevel analysis of their public campaign seeking the return of the remains of their family members. Using data collected from the families, members of the ICLVR, and support workers, the experience of the families of the Disappeared are analysed through accessing the social dynamics of silence (and loyalty), in-group affiliations, notions of sacrifice, and the attribution of blame; political successes both national and international will also serve to frame the analysis.     

中韩第三方市场合作:进展、阻力与对策

第三方市场合作是中韩两国参与国际分工协作的新型合作模式,也是两国发展战略对接与比较优势互补的重要经济实践。中韩第三方市场合作在产品服务、工程建设、投资合作、产融结合和战略合作五个领域打造了一系列重要工程,不仅加深中韩两国的合作基础,还为第三方市场的经济发展注入新动力。但其中存在诸多挑战,产业结构的竞争、复杂的营商环境、域外大国因素的介入以及中韩经济波动等都对中韩第三方市场合作造成了阻力。因此,开拓战略新兴产业、打造示范工程、创新金融合作和完善协调机制,是实现中韩第三方市场合作可持续发展的重要保障。     

Education, empowerment and community based structural reinforcement: an HIV prevention response to mass incarceration and removal

In the context of US urban jails, incarceration is often seen as an opportune intervention point for prevention interventions in public health. For the detained individual, it is an opportunity to reflect on individual choices and the potential for changes in one's life course. For population focused public health professionals, jail detention facilities represent a concentration of health risks, and an opportunity to have an impact on a significant portion of those at risk for HIV and other health concerns. This paper presents an innovative education and empowerment model that bridges across jail walls, beginning on the inside, and continuing on the outside of jail where individuals continue to be challenged and supported toward positive health and social choices. The intervention also seeks to foment community activism in the communities to which jail detainees return, thus aiming to have a structural impact. This paper examines both the intervention model and the challenges of examining the effectiveness claims for the intervention at multiple levels.