NOT EVEN OUR OWN FACTS: CRIMINOLOGY IN THE ERA OF BIG DATA

Criminology is an applied discipline where the findings from the data collected and analyses conducted inform debates about policy and practice. For this to happen, a discipline must have an agreed‐upon set of facts to define the problem and suggest solutions. We can debate the soundness of fundamental data series, but these debates must take place within the confines of scientific inquiry and all data must be subjected to the same scrutiny. Data sources must comprise agreed‐upon standards for collection and be accessible for replication. The increasing use of “big data” has frayed this agreement about quality and accessibility and has made it more difficult for criminology to have its own facts. In this presentation, I define the term “big data” and argue it will be difficult for big data to replace traditional data sources and to live up to their potential for knowledge building. Finally, I suggest a few things that the discipline might do to address these problems of access and quality.     

Violence and the breakdown of the political settlement: an uncertain future for Bangladesh?

Abstract

We explore the dynamics of the elite political settlement in Bangladesh after the democratic transition in 1991 and its impact on the elite interactions in the arena of competitive electoral democracy. We trace the history of how a political settlement around regime succession developed in the mid-1990s, and then experienced difficulties in multiple stages, and finally broke down in 2011. Violence was instrumentally used, by the ruling elites and the main opposition party, to influence the processes of negotiations around the succession of power. We argue that ‘partyarchy’—where political parties exert informal control of the party through formal processes and institutions—and dynastic rule prevent the political elites from reaching a stable settlement around regime succession. We also show how the changes to the rules of the game around regime succession have led to a qualitative shift in the extent and nature of violence in the political domain, and explore why democratic consolidation remains elusive.     

Large-scale land deals from the inside out: findings from Kenya's Tana Delta

Although there is alarm over the global land rush, many plans for the large-scale transformation of land acquired by investors remain on the drawing board. Based on a study of two land deals in Kenya's Tana Delta, this paper considers the processes by which blueprint designs are amended or delayed through the involvement of local actors. It demonstrates that even top-down acquisition of land by powerful state-linked actors with the support of policy discourse can be stalled by the rural poor, particularly if the latter have strong customary claims and links to wider opposition. At the same time, large-scale land acquisition is not automatically opposed by local people, who may see land deals as an opportunity to safeguard access to resources and to support their development expectations. The paper also suggests that although consultation and the existence of recognised property rights appear to result in fairer project designs, land deals are likely to reflect the decision-making power of an elite that is not fully informed. The conclusion affirms the need for more nuanced, place-based analyses of large-scale land deals, taking into account tenure arrangements, resource access mechanisms, land management discourses and the role of cross-scale agency and alliances in building support for, or opposition to, such deals.     

Seeing land deals through the lens of the ‘land–water nexus’: the case of biofuel production in Piura,Peru

ABSTRACT

This contribution examines two large-scale land acquisitions on Peru’s northern coast, using a ‘land–water nexus’ approach. The establishment of large sugarcane monocultures resulted in a massive transfer of land and water rights from smallholders to biofuel companies. Using Ribot and Peluso’s theory of access, we demonstrate that this transfer of rights was enabled by the convergence of neoliberal land and water reforms and the presence of the two investors. This constellation (1) altered smallholders’ bundles of rights; and (2) created sharp imbalances that radically changed access to land and water, not only through changing bundles of rights, but also, and maybe more significantly, through widening the gaps between smallholders’ and biofuel companies’ bundles of powers. Using Hall et al.’s powers of exclusion approach, we identify the processes both underpinning and resulting out of the changing access relations analyzed in this study. Changes to Peru’s water governance may accentuate power asymmetries between investors and smallholders, constraining locals’ access to increasingly scarce water.     

接近正义与诉讼保险制度研究

诉讼保险以商业运作模式为基础,通过投保将诉讼的成本和负担转移给保险公司,甚至社会。诉讼保险制度保障了老百姓接近正义的权益。引进诉讼保险不失为一种比较可行的对策。     

构建中日韩自贸区农产品市场准入谈判分析

构建中日韩自贸区,必定要在农产品领域实现贸易自由化,其中农产品的市场准入问题首当其冲。虽然中日韩已签署的双边自贸协定对三国间农产品市场准入谈判有重要的借鉴意义,但日韩为保护国内脆弱的农业,大量运用关税和非关税措施,并在多边农业谈判中就关税削减、特殊保障措施的存废等问题的立场与中国存在较大差异,这预示着上述问题将成为中日韩自贸区农产品市场准入谈判的难点。因此,即将开启的中日韩自贸区农产品市场准入谈判,应当结合有益的国内外实践,恰当规划谈判议程,遵守非歧视性原则,灵活设定关税削减问题中的农产品准入范围、过渡期,规范适用农产品特殊保障措施,从而推动该谈判各项共识的早日达成,进而加快中日韩自贸区谈判的进程。     

外商隐名投资纠纷的司法困局——以一起行政诉讼为切入点

《关于审理外商投资企业纠纷案件若干问题的规定(一)》针对外商隐名投资纠纷的处理确立了新的制度,明确在获得审批机关同意等条件下司法机关可以作出确权判决,其实质是将外资审批机关的外商准入审查引入民事诉讼程序,实现行政权与司法权在这类案件中的相互配合。然而司法实践却暴露了诉讼过程中当事人对审批机关的异议机制缺失的新问题。司法机关审理外商隐名投资纠纷的困局,根本上是由我国实行外商准入审批制造成的,审批制向备案制的转变将从根本上解决此类案件的司法困局。     

Ethics as an Enabler of Public Policy

Ethics constrains us. But ethics can also act as an ‘enabler’, helping to secure compliance with public policies. Basing policies on ethical principles helps the public know what is required of them by public policies. Framing policies in those ways also primes people to think in terms of their own ethically based reasons for action. Basing policies on ethical principles can assist in securing the cooperation of potential veto players by creating cooperative norms and a culture of trust.     

Counter-mythologising “media freedom”: including the audience in media freedom discourses and a new normative position for the global south

This article argues for a conscious counter-mythologisation of the popularly utilised term “media freedom” within media political and policy discourses. It further argues for a diversion from understanding this term to refer exclusively to the sphere of media production involving the ability or freedoms of media producers to do their work without hindrances to their independence – whether these stem from state actors, media owners or other external forces. The article contends that a free media should theoretically, and in addition, be considered from the perspective of the audience(s) and its respective prospects of access and accessibility to the entirety of the media landscape. Since challenges of meaningful access and accessibility to media communications persist in much of the Global South, the article concludes by suggesting a newly theorised normative approach to the role of the media in a democracy, which is in keeping with socio-political conditions in historically “Othered” regions of the world. Utilising the example of a counter-mythologisation of media freedom, and adopting an audience-centred approach, the article additionally contends that any attempt at formulating new media theory ought to be contextualised within the global crisis of inequality in order for it to be relevant to the majority audience.     

Doctors Doing Gender at Eye Clinics—Gender Constructions in Relation to Waiting Times for Cataract Extractions in Sweden

Why do eye clinics differ in their waiting times for women’s and men’s access to cataract extraction (CE)/“grå starroperation”? Taking a doing-gender perspective as the starting point, this study explores how gender constructions embedded in Swedish eye clinics contribute to longer waiting times for women than for men. Focus group interviews were conducted with doctors at two Swedish eye clinics: one with a larger and another with a smaller than average gender difference in waiting times for CE. Several differences were found between the clinics regarding how gender was constructed: Women and men were constructed as different with respect to ascribed traits such as assertiveness and care-seeking behaviour. Their need for visual acuity in working life was perceived as different by the doctors, and the study indicates differences between the clinics regarding their interest and awareness concerning issues related to inequity, reflected in the dissimilar prevalence of jokes with racist and misogynist connotations at the two clinics.