Sorts Of Actors Research Articles

Actors, legitimacy, and governance challenges facing negative emissions and solar geoengineering technologies

ABSTRACT Institutional theory, behavioral science, sociology and even political science all emphasize the importance of actors in achieving social change. Despite this salience, the actors involved in researching, promoting, or deploying negative emissions and solar geoengineering technologies remain underexplored within the literature. In this study, based on a rigorous sample of semi-structured expert interviews (N = 125), we empirically explore the types of actors and groups associated with both negative emissions and solar geoengineering research and deployment. We investigate emergent knowledge networks and patterns of involvement across space and scale. We examine actors in terms of their support of, opposition to, or ambiguity regarding both types of climate interventions. We reveal incipient and perhaps unforeseen collections of actors; determine which sorts of actors are associated with different technology pathways to comprehend the locations of actor groups and potential patterns of elitism; and assess relative degrees of social acceptance, legitimacy, and governance.

Science and media framing of the future of plastics in relation to transitioning to a circular economy

Plastics play an important role in the transition from the current linear economy to a more circular one, but ideas differ about this role. These ideas were studied in this article as a form of futurity framing. These framings may hinder or contribute to a transition toward a circular bioeconomy by opening up or closing down alternative paradigms for thinking about plastics in the future. Based on a media analysis of four Dutch national newspapers and international academic papers, three futurity frames were found regarding the role of different types of plastics in a linear economy, a circular economy, or an economy in transition. (1) In newspapers and academic sources, traditional plastics were considered part of a linear economy. (2) In both sources, all sorts of actors saw a future for plastics with improved material properties in a transition toward a circular economy, but in combination with a change in consumer behavior and waste management systems. (3) In both academic journals and newspapers, a role for plastics was envisioned in a future circular economy. However, in academic journals, the discussions focused mainly on the improvement of alternative forms of plastics such as biobased and/or biodegradable, whereas, in newspapers, recycling traditional plastics was emphasized. These findings indicate that a transition to a more circular economy may accelerate if both the closing-the-loop argument and the argument for technological innovations for biobased and biodegradable products receive equal attention in newspapers and academic journals, and are taken more into account in a societal future vision for the circular economy.

The False King Olaf, Queen Margaret, and the Prussian Hansa

The case of the False Olaf has received comparatively little attention. In 1402, a Prussian peasant was brought to Scandinavia, heralded by his supporters as King Óláfr Hákonarson (known in modern Danish as Oluf II, or in Norwegian as Olav IV). The real King Óláfr had died in 1387, and the imposter seems to have capitalized on a popular belief that Queen Margaret, the King’s mother, had him killed. In this article I begin by introducing the sources for the False Olaf affair. I consider the case alongside international analogues, and I build on earlier theories concerning the sorts of actors who probably organized the imposture. Previous assertions that the False Olaf was mentally ill are shown to be unnecessary. I underline the relative amateurishness of the scheme to suggest that it belongs to a broader genre of hapless intervention that occurs when mercantile interests (or the interests of capital) fail to grasp properly the workings of governments.

Measurement of innovation: the use and misuse of indicators and scoreboards

The choice of indicators to measure innovation processes and assess performance is of vital significance. This paper argues that those economic theories give a more accurate, more reliable account of innovation activities that follow a broad approach of innovation, that is, consider all knowledge-intensive activities leading to new products (goods or services), processes, business models, as well as new organisational and managerial solutions, and thus take into account various types, forms and sources of knowledge exploited for innovation by all sorts of actors in all economic sectors. In contrast, the narrow approach to innovation focuses on the so-called high-tech goods and sectors. The broad approach is needed to collect data and other types of information, on which sound theories can be built and reliable and comprehensive analyses of innovation activities can be offered to decision-makers to underpin public policies and company strategies.

Constructing animal species as social problems

AbstractAnimal species are constructed as social problems in four ways: as pests that threaten people or their social arrangements; as endangered species whose survival is threatened; as invasive species that pose a threat to some new environment; and as deviants that misbehave. The rise of the animal rights movement has made the process of constructing species as social problems more contentious. Debates over these issues involve some combination of three sorts of actors: stakeholders claiming that a species poses a threat; counterclaimsmakers arguing that the species deserves protection; and animal management officials who must mediate these disputes. Identifying such patterns across case studies offers a basis for developing a more elaborate theory of social problems construction.

‘Vienna Calling’: Diplomacy and the Ordering of Intercommunal Relations at the Congress of Vienna

This article contends that diplomacy is an essential factor in the (trans)formation of ‘intercommunal relations’ — that is, international relations understood as social order(s) constituted by the practices of different sorts of actors. This relationship is illustrated by the regulation of ranks of diplomatic agents at the Congresses of Vienna (1815) and Aix-la-Chapelle (1818) and its effects on international order. This regulation was supposed to — and indeed did — offer a solution to some typical ‘foreign policy problems’ of the early nineteenth century, whereas other equally typical problems remained unsolved. Yet the effects of this innovation resulted in a significant shift, both in diplomatic practice and in notions of international order, as it ‘ordered’ the relations between actors and constituted specific patterns of identity recognition.

On Oenological Authenticity: Making Wine Real and Making Real Wine

On Oenological Authenticity: Making Wine Real and Making Real Wine

УЧАСТИЕ МОЛОДЕЖИ В СТАНОВЛЕНИИ ГРАЖДАНСКОГО ОБЩЕСТВА КАК ТЕОРЕТИЧЕСКАЯ ПРОБЛЕМА

The importance of the issue reflected in the paper is directly related to the social changes currently occurring in Russian society, the main indicator of which, as a rule, is youth. Moreover, the study of the issue is important in connection with the ongoing debate about the nature and dynamics of the civil society in modern Russia. This paper defines the essential characteristics of youth involvement into civil society development. Theoretical problem of the work is determined by the approach of H. Ortega-and-Gasset. Thus, the main objective of the paper is to answer the question – what the involvement of youth into civil society development is. The paper analyzes the existing definitions within the Western and domestic scientific community of such concepts as youth, civic involvement and civil society; emphasizes the importance of studying the classification of the “participation” concept. The analysis discovered that, despite numerous works devoted to the phenomenon of involvement, the term itself is used by researchers in different contexts, and is filled with different contents. Particular attention is paid to the problem of relation between the key types of involvement, such as civic, political, public and social. Following the results of the analysis, the author has determined her position concerning this issue, where youth involvement in the civil society development is defined as the introduction of a number of rules, regulations, and self-organizing technology for youth, which in their turn are based on the voluntary co-operation with all sorts of actors and stimulate freedom, equality and solidarity ensuring.

Socio-cultural dimensions of climate change: charting the terrain

We have reached a crucial turning point in debates around climate change. A well established scientific consensus regarding the physical causes, dynamics, and at least many likely implications of anthropogenic climate change has thus far failed to result in any substantial movement towards mitigation. For many, then, the most urgent questions regarding climate change are now socio-cultural ones, such as: how do people come to hold and act on certain beliefs regarding environmental conditions and processes; how do institutional forms and histories shape and constrain the views and options of various sorts of actors; and what are relationships among fossil fuels, climate change, and the historical geographies and future trajectories of capitalism? Far from being simpler than physical and life science questions, these social science questions introduce entirely new sorts of actors, dynamics, and methodological challenges into this already complex and dynamic domain. This special issue takes up these topics. In this essay, we chart some of the major contours of contemporary social science thinking regarding climate change and introduce the articles in the special issue. We begin by examining work, from political science and scholarship on the commons, that foregrounds questions of sovereignty, territoriality, and cooperation with respect to environmental governance. Then we examine work from neoclassical economics and radical political economy, which frame climate change in terms of externalities, or contradiction and crisis, respectively. Finally, we examine the rapidly proliferating work exploring how individuals think and feel about these issues, emphasizing concepts of risk, communication, and governmentality.

Disciplining the Neoliberal Bank: Credit Risk Regulation and the Financialization of Loan Management

This paper seeks to contribute to thinking on the role of public authorities in the regulation of economic affairs in the context of neoliberal financialized capitalism. It is based on examination of changes regarding the requirements for credit risks from the Basel I accords (1988) to the Basel II and III accords (2004-2010). The shift on this question in the Basel Accords is much more than a simple tidy-up. The literature shows that the reform of the Basel requirements for credit risk was the product of a neoliberal political agenda carried by lobbies representing market actors. Our study of the instruments used to assess credit risk and to define the associated capital requirements under Basel II and III shows that the regulatory framework effectively delegates management of the security of the financial system to the actors in the system. Yet, our study also stresses that the autonomy won through this move towards self-regulation is associated with the implementation of new types of constraints. In our case, these new constraints are taking the form of an impressive system of monitoring and control of internal risk management practices. This system is then coupled with financial incentives, in a way that has been carefully designed to lead the banks to adopt specific “financialized” practices. Michel Foucault argued in his classes on neoliberalism that neoliberalism requires, not withdrawal of the State as in traditional liberalism, but a transformation of practices by the State, which on the contrary actively intervenes to produce the right conditions for a market, and help markets to emerge and operate whenever possible. Among the necessary conditions for construction of these markets, he also stressed the importance of producing subjects (through the intermediary of biopolitics) able to act in a world made up of markets, and that the form of behaviour expected of these subjects is that of the enterprise, leading to extension of this form to all sorts of actors who used to operate in different ways (nonprofit organizations, salaried individuals, etc). Our case allows to go beyond this analysis and show that when the market agents are enterprises, they too must be subjected to active production and a conformation process, and that it cannot be just any type of enterprise; it too must go through a subjectification process that also brings a range of power techniques into play. The case consequently shows the concurrent development of liberty and discipline for enterprises in neoliberal regimes. It also offers an opportunity for close examination of the nature of the disciplinarization that goes hand in hand with neoliberal financialized capitalism. In this perspective, it especially stresses three intertwined processes: the regulator’s construction of financial incentives, the imposition of working methods and the rise of a bureaucracy of control. Finally, methodologically, this study underlines the value of approaching these issues by an in-depth analysis of the technical aspects of regulatory provisions, since this approach enables us to construct the contrasting image of the changes presented here.

L’activité physique et sportive comme outil médicopsychologique ? Étude de l’offre de pratiques en direction des personnes infectées par le VIH

The study of the history of discourses on « Sports and HIV » and of the activity slots created for HIV-seropositive persons shows that two sorts of actors are involved: the organisations taking care of sick people and gay and lesbian sports clubs. In both cases, the emergence of this specific offer is marked by an a priori positive vision of exercising and of its effects. This perception is legitimated by a biomedical literature which transforms sports into medicosocial engineering tool taken for granted and at the same time contributes to overshadow the difficulties encountered by the people concerned. The idea that the access to physical exercising and sports activities may be a motive of suffering is here completely unthinkable. Worse, this impossibility implies deafness to the demand of the patients.

Preparing for information‐age conflict: Part 1 conceptual and organizational dimensions

Prevailing hopes for the peace‐enhancing tendencies of interconnectivity must be tempered by a realization that the information revolution augurs a new epoch of conflict, in which new modes of armed combat and social upheaval will emerge. We propose a four‐part vision to prepare for this new epoch. This article spells out the first two parts — the conceptual and organizational (a second article will convey the doctrinal and strategic parts). In our vision, preparing for information‐age conflict involves rethinking the very concept of ‘information’. This is achieved by adding to the dominant view, that information is largely about ‘information processing’, a less‐developed view that emphasizes the ‘structuring’ roles of information. In this latter view, embedded information is what enables a structure to hold its form; and this helps account for the successful functioning of all sorts of actors and systems, in peace as well as in war. The organizational dimension of our analysis holds that the information revolution favours the rise of the network form, in particular the all‐channel network in which every node may communicate with every other. Transnational terrorist and criminal organizations in particular are gaining strength by resorting to new network designs. For state actors to cope with them, a key challenge is to develop hybrids of hierarchies and networks.