Theoretical Arguments Research Articles

The population dynamics of clustered consumer–resource spatial patterns: Insights from the demographics of a Turing mechanism

In ecology, Alan Turing's proposed activation-inhibition mechanism has been abstracted as corresponding to several ecological interaction types to explain pattern formation in ecosystems. Consumer-resource interactions have strong theoretical arguments linking them to both the Turing mechanism and pattern formation, but there is little empirical support to demonstrate these claims. Here, we connect several lines of evidence to support the proposition that consumer-resource interactions can create empirically observed spatial patterns through a mechanism similar to Turing's theory. We propose the existence of a fine-scale demographic spatial pattern (DSP), in which the youngest resources are located at the periphery and oldest in the center of clusters. We find evidence of a DSP in the spatially clustered distribution of arboreal ant nests, whose large-scale spatial patterning has previously been hypothesized to be driven by ant parasitoids. Through a combination of field surveys and analysis of demographic trends, we demonstrate how the DSP structures the interactions between the ant and its parasitoid. To explore the implications of DSP for consumer-resource pattern forming systems generally, we use a spatially explicit consumer-resource model to show how relative diffusion rates of the system shape multiscale spatial patterns that structure the demographic trends of the resource population in predictable ways. This work provides both empirical support for consumer-resource spatial patterns as well as a multiscale approach to understand their spatially explicit population dynamics.

Marrying the Unbeliever: Gender, Law, and Disparitas Cultus in Early Modern Japan*

The marriage between a Christian and a non‐Christian has been a highly discussed topic in the history of the Catholic Church and canon law. This study aims to analyse the construction of knowledge concerning disparitas cultus by using a broad array of sources including moral theology, canon law, and missionaries' cases that circulated in different regions of the Iberian Empires. It examines theoretical discussions by theologians in Japan and other parts of the Iberian Empires, as well as case studies described by missionaries in Japan involving Japanese Christians married to non‐Christians. The focus lies on revealing the arguments used both for and against marriage with disparity of cults, and on demonstrating the existence of diverse arrangements of marital cohabitation beyond the theoretical debates held on by scholars in Europe and Asia. From the perspective of women's legal history, it explores the relativisation of paternal consent, religious beliefs and social practices of cohabitation, gender roles within such relationships, household compositions and human relations, all contributing to the numerous situations in which couples live in disparitas cultus. Lastly, this article showcases how missionaries' sources can offer fresh interpretations to women's history in sixteenth and seventeenth‐century Japan.

Six Alternatives to War, One Solution for Peace: The Pacifying Effect of Civil Society

Abstract Although civil society has significant implications for international peace, it has been overlooked and not given enough attention. Instead, existing studies focus on other factors that contribute to peace. In this study, we compare five prominent peace factors, namely, democratic peace, Cold War peace, contractualist peace, capitalist peace, and territorial peace, to a robust civil society. Our research presents a unique theoretical argument that a robust civil society can have a pacifying effect on international conflict. This is because it can organize a united front against belligerent leaders, solve collective action problems, and take immediate action against leaders’ war decisions in pursuit of a common peace agenda. We begin by building a canonical democratic peace model and then compare the results related to civil society and each of the five peace factors. Our findings provide supporting evidence that a robust civil society has a stronger pacifying effect compared to democratic, Cold War, contractualist, capitalist, and territorial peace, respectively. Our empirical results are significant for academics and policymakers, highlighting the importance of building a robust civil society in the pursuit of perpetual peace.

Community organising and radical democracy

Abstract Community organising is a way of doing democratic politics distinct from electoral and radical protest politics yet has been largely overlooked in discourse studies and activist scholarship, particularly when compared to the attention paid to ‘flashier’ grassroots movements. We aim to contribute to rectifying this shortcoming by exploring the conceptual connections between community organising and the political discourse theory of radical democracy. Our theoretical argument is supplemented with an illustrative vignette-based exploration, drawing on the experiences of community alliances and their members within Citizens UK, the UK’s community organising umbrella organization. We show that while radical democratic theory can help ground community organising practice and its dilemmas in a conceptually illuminating way, community organising practice, in turn, can help put some valuable ‘flesh’ onto what many consider to be the rather abstract pronouncements associated with radical democracy and its failure to elaborate what an agonistic politics looks like in practice.

Impact of non-Hermiticity and nonlinear interactions on disorder-induced localized modes

In non-Hermitian photonics, introducing gain and loss offers new degrees of freedom to control optical systems and a unique approach to explore fundamental concepts. Random lasers are a natural class of non-Hermitian open optical systems where spatial confinement, leakage, and non-orthogonality of the modes are further controlled by the degree of scattering. How Anderson localization is impacted by complex potentials, gain and loss and, more generally, nonlinearities has been the subject of numerous theoretical debates, without any conclusive experimental demonstration yet. Indeed, in systems where localized modes have sufficient spatial extension to be observed and investigated, their mutual interaction and coupling to the sample boundaries make it extremely difficult to isolate them spectrally and investigate them alone. Here, the degree of non-Hermiticity of an active scattering medium is controlled by shaping the pump. By imaging the intensity distribution of individual localized lasing modes, we demonstrate experimentally their insensitivity to local pumping; a signature that orthogonality is preserved between modes localized away from the system boundaries, as theoretically established. Demonstration of the one-to-one correspondence between lasing modes and localized states of the passive system opens the route to investigate the robustness of localized states in the presence of nonlinear gain and nonlinear modal interactions. Interestingly, gain saturation and mode competition for gain do not affect the spatial distribution of the modes, demonstrating their orthogonality in an otherwise strongly non-Hermitian system.

Racial Inequality and Support for Democracy

This article argues that ethnoracial inequalities undermine support for democracy. We develop an original theoretical argument specifying how structural inequalities delegitimize democracy by alienating marginalized group members while also rationalizing forms of hierarchy at odds with democratic principles. Evidence from a large-scale survey experiment conducted among Black and white respondents in the United States shows that exposure to racial inequalities undermines diffuse support for democracy across society even while provoking group polarization in people’s attitudes toward the specific government institutions that allow inequality to persist. Qualitative evidence from the experiment further illuminates the mechanisms linking racial inequality to democratic delegitimation and reveals how underlying thought processes operate differently across groups. The article provides empirical evidence in line with insights from democratic theorists concerning the detrimental consequences racial hierarchies have for democratic citizenship and contributes to growing cross-national conversations about the challenges structural inequalities pose for democracy.

Principle-Based Standards and Analyst Forecasts: Evidence from China

Synopsis The research problem This paper investigated the impact of principle-based accounting standards on analyst forecasts. Motivation The theoretical and practical debates over whether accounting standards should be more principle-based or rule-based have persisted to this day. Existing research primarily focused on the impact of principle-based standards on managers, auditors, and investors in developed economies. However, whether principle-based standards have played the anticipated positive role in emerging markets with relatively weaker institutional environments—and particularly, how they affect another important participant in financial markets, namely, analysts—is the research gap we wished to further explore. The test hypotheses We tested the following hypotheses: (a) principle-based accounting standards are associated with higher analyst forecast errors; (b) managers’ earnings management incentives and a weak institutional environment exacerbate the negative impact of principle-based standards on analyst forecasts; and (c) analysts’ limited attention and effort aversion exacerbate the negative impact of principle-based standards on analyst forecasts. Target population Financial analysts, accounting standards setting bodies such as IASB and accounting regulators in emerging markets. Adopted methodology We used ordinary least squares regressions, archival data, and textual analysis methods to obtain the initial data. Analyses First, based on firms’ annual reports, we used text analysis methods to construct a firm-level principle-based measurement. Then, we examined the relationship between the degree of a firm’s reliance on principle-based standards and the analyst forecast errors. After obtaining the baseline result, we further discussed the possible mediating effects of accounting information quality and analysts’ subjective mindsets. Finally, we discussed the impact of principle-based standards on other forecasting attributes beyond analyst forecast errors. Findings Using a sample of Chinese listed firms, we found that analysts’ forecast errors are larger for firms that rely more on principle-based standards. Based on the “input-processing-output” model, we found that in the input stage, principle-based standards may become a tool for managers to manipulate accounting earnings in firms with stronger earnings management incentives or that are in weaker institutional environments, leading to higher analyst forecast error, with accounting information quality as an important mediator. During processing, analysts’ limited attention and effort aversion exacerbate the adverse impact of principle-based standards on forecast quality, while analysts’ experience can mitigate this effect. For output results, principle-based standards are also associated with higher forecast dispersion, longer forecast lag, and more forecast revisions. Collectively, our research uncovered some dark sides of principle-based standards in weak institutional environments.

The Influence of Bauhaus "Minimalist" Style on Contemporary Art Production and Consumption

This article primarily discusses the challenges posed by new architecture to traditional architectural concepts from the late 19th century to the outbreak of World War I, as well as how Bauhaus, as a representative modernist architectural style, influenced modern architecture and art. The article highlights the theoretical debate between traditional craftsmanship and modernist design, especially the ideological conflict during the "Cologne Debate." It also examines the impact of Walter Gropius' idealism and Hannes Meyer's communist ideals on Bauhaus. The simplicity and practicality of the Bauhaus style are contrasted with the decorative richness of traditional European architectural styles. The article further explores the widespread adoption of minimalism in contemporary society, its influence on the landscape painting field, and its role in the commercial and artistic domains. Lastly, the article points out that minimalism, as an inevitable product of the high-speed technological era, aligns with people's pursuit of functionalism and visual consumption while shaping business output and replication models.

Consensus, Colonization, and Counterpower? Deliberative Democracy, Uncharted Evolution, and Its Potential to be Decolonized

The article explores the trajectory of deliberative democracy as a response to contemporary political challenges within liberal, representative systems, with the debate on the possible decolonization of this concept being among its latest theoretical developments. Anchored in mini-public-based experiments, deliberative democracy seems to be – for most scholars – the chief remedy for the prevailing political crises of late capitalism, although its embedding in a colonial imaginary poses a fundamental obstacle. This article maps the evolution of the concept of deliberative democracy and its implementation in the present day, contending that the Western adoption of deliberative ideals into feasible practices has selectively incorporated the notion of public reasoning while sidelining the anarchist and autonomous implications inherent in consensus-based frameworks, which are recognizable in Indigenous political practices. While decolonizing public deliberative processes toward subversive practices has recently been subjected to theoretical debate, we also examine instances such as bottom-up deliberations in forest occupations. These not only exemplify queer, inclusive, and democratic decision-making, but also harness deliberation as a tool to counter private, political, and police authority in a way that is unavailable for public deliberations. But the question remains, how feasible is it as a democratizing practice beyond such niches?

A brief overview of the therapeutic alliance: historical, theoretical and contemporary debates

The therapeutic alliance has a historical importance in psychiatry, especially in the effectiveness of psychotherapies. The therapeutic alliance is a critical concept that reflects the quality of the relationship between the patient and the therapist in the psychotherapy process and for many clinicians it is the main factor in the patient's recovery. While a strong alliance increases the success of the therapy, in cases of weak alliance, it is difficult to achieve therapeutic goals. Although different psychotherapy approaches position the concept of therapeutic alliance differently, in the future, in-depth exploration of the therapeutic alliance in different contexts and populations will contribute to the scientific knowledge in this field. The therapeutic alliance is a valuable concept not only in psychotherapy, but also in every field of psychiatry, and even wherever there is a physician-patient relationship. In this article, the therapeutic alliance is examined in the historical process, its importance in psychotherapy is discussed, and the prevention of rupture or what to do in case of rupture is explained.

Crowds and plebiscitary representation: Rituals of presence in the Orbán regime

The article aims to characterise the role of crowd events in plebiscitary representation, complementing the original Weberian–Schmittian characterisation with Hans-Ulrich Gumbrecht’s notions of crowd and presence ritual. In addition, it shows the relevance of the theoretical argument by analysing the role three types of presence rituals play in maintaining Viktor Orbán’s plebiscitary regime in Hungary, based on available video footage of the events and Orbán’s speeches. Such an investigation has a threefold relevance. First, it contributes to understanding Orbán’s domestic successes by emphasising a hitherto underappreciated aspect of his politics. Second, focusing on presence rituals’ bodily and sensory elements complements existing research on populist rallies. Third, it contributes to constructivist approaches to representation and the evolving interdisciplinary field of performative representation by highlighting, following Gumbrecht, the role oscillations between ‘presence-effects’ (sensorial-bodily processes) and ‘meaning-effects’ (claim-making and the use of symbols) play in the process of making constituencies.

More Liberty, More Rules? Abortion Policy and the Liberalization-Rule Nexus

While conventional wisdom often equates liberalization with deregulation, theoretical arguments from different scientific backgrounds suggest that states tend to increase their rule stock when they adopt more liberal policies. This article studies the case of abortion policy to better understand the liberalization-rule nexus. By examining data from 25 countries over 50years, we empirically assess the dynamics between liberalization events and corresponding regulatory changes. Our findings reveal that while the majority of countries does indeed introduce more rules upon liberalizing abortion, the extent of these regulatory changes varies considerably. The analysis suggests that the extent of rule growth depends on the conflicts that characterize liberalization processes in particular countries and time periods. Right-leaning governments, religious groups and institutional veto players are shown to have a positive influence on rule growth. On the contrary, higher levels of liberalization reduce the necessity for additional rules. By illuminating a contested empirical relationship, the article helps to better understand the implications of liberalization in modern democracies.

NEW SAFETY CHALLENGES OF CEMENT-CONTAINING BUILDING MATERIALS AND PRODUCTS FROM THEM

The article considers a new problem of harmful effects of Portland cement on humans due to the possibility of releasing ammonia during hydration hardening of materials and products based on it. It notes the relationship between the analyzed problem and the intensification of energy and resource saving at modern cement plants, which allows nitrogen-containing materials to enter Portland cement: as part of raw materials; with materials utilized in high-temperature zones of rotary kilns and as part of additives introduced during grinding of cement clinker. Probable sources of ammonia release from Portland cement during its hydration are analyzed in a logical sequence and taking into account the chemical specificity of various groups of nitrogen-containing compounds. The most theoretically substantiated and experimentally confirmed hypothesis is chosen about the synthesis of iron nitrides in high-temperature zones of rotary kilns for burning cement clinker – the main sources of subsequent ammonia emission during hydration of Portland cement. A set of conditions necessary for the synthesis of iron nitrides is considered. The debatable nature of the issue of the stability of stoichiometric iron nitride Fe8N is indicated and it is proposed to consider it as a solid solution along with stoichiometric compounds Fe4N and Fe2N when analyzing chemical processes of hydration with the formation of ammonia. Possible solutions to the problem at the place of its occurrence - Portland cement plants – are discussed. The expediency of depleting sources of ammonia emission at the initial stages of hydration hardening of Portland cement is shown, which significantly reduces the risk of harmful effects on the human body. A method for eliminating the problem at large enterprises consuming Portland cement in significant quantities for the manufacture of dry building mixtures, concrete and products from them is selected. The essence of the method for proactively removing the main amount of ammonia emission sources at the initial stage of Portland cement hydration in the presence of the additive Ca(NO3)2 is described. Theoretical and practical arguments are presented about the positive effect of small amounts of Ca(NO3)2 on the formation of the microstructure and operational characteristics of cement stone, which additionally stimulates the implementation of the proposed method. The need for a comprehensive large-scale study of all possible manifestations of the analyzed problem with the involvement of specialists from sanitary and hygienic services is emphasized.

Movement parties in Europe: a comparative assessment

AbstractResearch on political parties and social movements has long developed independently, separated by the disciplinary boundaries of political science and sociology. We see the recent successes of ‘movement parties’ as a push to bridge the two disciplinary traditions in order to describe this new hybrid party type accurately. To this end, we ask to what extent and under what conditions do we observe movement parties in European party systems, and how can we define the various subtypes? In the introduction to the special issue, we make three contributions. First, we identify existing definitions and empirical examples in the study of movement parties based on a systematic review of the emerging literature. Second, we operationalize Herbert Kitschelt's influential definition of lower levels of programmatic and organizational investment coupled with a higher degree of protest mobilization. Third, we introduce the individual contributions to the special issue and situate them within the relevant theoretical debates. Utilizing a new set of quantitative indicators, we empirically assess how parties identified as movement parties in the existing literature score on programmatic, organizational, and protest dimensions. The analysis underscores the heterogeneity of movement parties, with only a few cases aligning with Kitschelt's comprehensive definition.

French subject doubling

This paper revisits the status of subject clitics in Spoken French by studying subject doubling as a sociolinguistic variable. In the literature, two influential analyses have been proposed to account for French subject doubling. Based on new evidence from a corpus study on the large Multicultural Paris French (MPF) corpus, we argue for an analysis reconciling these two competing views of the construction in Spoken (colloquial) French. On one hand, we provide further support to the morphological approach (Auger, 1994; Culbertson, 2010) in which subject clitics are morphological agreement markers on the verb. On the other hand, we argue based on new evidence that lexical subjects are topicalized, as in the dislocation analysis. Furthermore, we argue that Spoken French is in a diglossia situation where speakers alternate structures provided by both Standard French and Colloquial French grammars. This paper provides further evidence of how quantitative studies of language use can shed light on long-standing theoretical debates.

Thermodynamically inconsistent extreme precipitation sensitivities across continents driven by cloud-radiative effects

Extreme precipitation events are projected to intensify with global warming, threatening ecosystems and amplifying flood risks. However, observation-based estimates of extreme precipitation-temperature (EP-T) sensitivities show systematic spatio-temporal variability, with predominantly negative sensitivities across warmer regions. Here, we attribute this variability to confounding cloud radiative effects, which cool surfaces during rainfall, introducing covariation between rainfall and temperature beyond temperature’s effect on atmospheric moisture-holding capacity. We remove this effect using a thermodynamically constrained surface-energy balance, and find positive EP-T sensitivities across continents, consistent with theoretical arguments. Median EP-T sensitivities across observations shift from −4.9%/°C to 6.1%/°C in the tropics and −0.5%/°C to 2.8%/°C in mid-latitudes. Regional variability in estimated sensitivities is reduced by more than 40% in tropics and about 30% in mid and high latitudes. Our findings imply that projected intensification of extreme rainfall with temperature is consistent with observations across continents, after confounding radiative effect of clouds is accounted for.

Survey mode as a moderator of context effects

After decades of survey quality research and many experiments on the mode of data collection as a source of data inequivalence, there is still no exact explanation of how the mixed-mode design impacts the collected data. While not providing a definitive answer, we propose a new explanation of the mode effect and how it correlates with other sources of errors in surveys. By reviewing the relevant literature, we develop theoretical arguments indicating that the mode of data collection is in fact a moderator of context effects, a view that can provide an answer to the question concerning the origin of the data cacophony in mixed-mode comparative studies.

Gender Inequality in International Research Engagement Amid Transformation to Global and Neoliberal Academia: The Case of Japan

ABSTRACTTo contribute to the theoretical debate on gender inequality in international research and mobility, this study applies Zippel's glass fences framework to explore the lived experiences of female faculty working at a Japanese university. An analysis of the interview data revealed that family care responsibilities and limited research time due to other work duties were two commonly experienced glass fences (i.e., gendered barriers to international research). There was a tendency, particularly among participants with children, to discontinue international research as a way of negotiating the masculine nature of academia and the persistent gender norms in Japanese society regarding women's roles in the family. Considering the structural and cultural constraints of higher education in Japan, this study found a behavioral mechanism among women who renounced mobility and international research activities. Participants' narratives also suggested mechanisms for overcoming such behaviors. Based on these findings, this study discusses cultural specificity in the magnitude of glass fences and the possibility of exacerbating gender inequalities in the context of ongoing internationalization and neoliberal reforms in Japanese higher education.

Asymmetric fluctuations and self-folding of active interfaces

We study the structure and dynamics of the interface separating a passive fluid from a microtubule-based active fluid. Turbulent-like active flows power giant interfacial fluctuations, which exhibit pronounced asymmetry between regions of positive and negative curvature. Experiments, numerical simulations, and theoretical arguments reveal how the interface breaks up the spatial symmetry of the fundamental bend instability to generate local vortical flows that lead to asymmetric interface fluctuations. The magnitude of interface deformations increases with activity: In the high activity limit, the interface self-folds invaginating passive droplets and generating a foam-like phase, where active fluid is perforated with passive droplets. These results demonstrate how active stresses control the structure, dynamics, and break-up of soft, deformable, and reconfigurable liquid-liquid interfaces.

Reflection on legal transplantation theories: a socio-legal historical study of the formulation and evolution of Chinese marine insurance law

Abstract This paper offers a socio-legal historical analysis of the process of formulation and evolution of Chinese marine insurance law by transplanting foreign laws, with a view to grasping from the material of legal history and social reality the deeper significance of the imported law’s relation to tradition, ideology and environmental context. The key argument is that this perspective reveals how transplanted law emerges as an authorless product shaped by social forces and processes. It is created by the operation of institutional arrangements of law-making, which provide the platform for the interplay of diverse traditions and interests generated by the social environment of the importing jurisdiction. This research integrates several lines of discussion of legal transplantation that lack connection, highlights the impact of the transplanting process and contributes to current theoretical debates by proposing potential interdisciplinary research for future studies of legal transplantation.