Key Brokers Research Articles

BROKERAGE QUALIFICATIONS IN RINGING OPERATIONS*

Brokers are fundamental for maintaining flexibility in the networks that embed criminal activities. Our study aims at offering more precision on this key issue by examining the impact that brokers may have on crime‐commission processes. To do so, we analyze two stolen‐vehicle exportation (or ringing) operations within a framework that merges crime‐script analysis and social‐network analysis. We assess how diverse degrees of brokerage are distributed across the ringing operations and how the removal of key brokers would have had a disruptive impact by reducing the scope of alternatives for crime‐script permutation and flexibility.

Servant or patron? Jacob Tonson and the language of deference and respect

The Kit Cat Club founded in 1700 by Jacob Tonson brought together young men of the new professions, including poets, architects and journalists, with some of the most important and influential men of the day. The latter were Whig politicians, many of them of noble birth and considerable fortunes. Jacob Tonson, club secretary and bookseller, advised his writer clients about whom to choose as dedicatees that might take more than a passing interest in their careers beyond the life of the pen. As such, he was a key broker of patronage between the ambitious young Whigs and patrons like Charles Montagu, Lord Halifax. The difference in rank and fortune between the Whig grandees and Tonson might be expected to be reflected in the language of those writers in search of patronage. This essay demonstrates that despite the fact that forms of address very clearly distinguished between the ranks of the patrons and the broker, poets like Addison, Stepney and Congreve nevertheless accorded to Tonson the same linguistic terms of politeness (in their modal language) that they employed to address their patrons. Pragmatic analysis of their modal language reveals their linguistic acknowledgment of the very real position of power occupied by Tonson.

Impediments to refractory recycling decision-making

This paper focuses on organizational impediments to the successful implementation of industrial recycling programs. Even if a technologically viable and mutually beneficial solution were to exist, there are a number of organizational impediments that make it unlikely to succeed unless the benefits are very large and apparent. These impediments stem from the difficulty in identifying potential partners and involving the appropriate individuals within the firms that understand the technical requirements, value the strategic benefits and are receptive towards establishing the industrial recycling relationship. This dilemma applies to many industrial recycling opportunities, but solutions do exist. One way to avoid some of these obstacles is to use a middleman, or broker, who can play several crucial roles to establish the relationship. This paper describes the impediments and key broker roles, and provides a case study dealing with refractory recycling. It provides a case study that documents a recycling relationship between an aluminum-manufacturing firm that produces a large volume of spent refractories and a regional portland cement producer that is using the spent refractories as an alternative raw material source. This paper also provides a thorough literature search in the area of refractory recycling. Finally, the case study provides an opportunity for analysis and reflection on the implications of these findings to industrial firms, industrial societies and governmental agencies that seek to encourage successful recycling operations.