Localising peace: The young men of Bougainville’s ‘Crisis generation’

Postconflict societies are often plagued by violence long after formal declarations of peace. There is a need to understand why peace often remains elusive. This article develops a theory of participation in peace and violence in postconflict societies, which it understands as being rooted in interactions between local structures and agency. Evidence to inform this theory comes from a study of young men in postconflict Bougainville, Papua New Guinea. We find that young men seek pathways to achieve positively valued and contextually relevant goals. However, difficulties with trauma, education and work, achieving social standing, and escaping from cultures of violence limit the capacity of young men to participate peacefully in society. Disenfranchised and marginalised, some young men may turn to acts and displays of violence. We argue that peace occurs when individuals choose to make and sustain it, and so, if the end of conflict does not bring with it changes in the structures which constrain the capacity of individuals to choose peaceful pathways, the risk of violence remains.     

The Borda Count and its real-world alternatives: Comparing scoring rules in Nauru and Slovenia

This article examines strategic elements of voter behaviour in parliamentary elections where the voting method is a scoring rule other than plurality: the Borda Count, which is used for the election of ethnic minorities in Slovenia, and the Dowdall rule, which is used in the Pacific island state of Nauru in multi-seat districts. After first examining the general properties of scoring rules, and generating theoretical differences between the two rules, we look at empirical evidence from Nauru and Slovenia. This casts a doubt on predictions based simply on a voting rule's mathematical properties and on the accuracy of assumptions of sincere rank ordering.

本文研究了议会选举投票者行为的策略因素。议会选举中的投票方法是一个有别于多数法的计分法则：斯洛文尼亚少数族群选举使用的波达计数法;太平洋岛屿国家瑙鲁多席位选区使用的斗多尔法则。作者首先分析了计分法则的一般属性,并对两种法则做了理论区分。然后研究了瑙鲁和斯洛文尼亚的实证资料。作者对仅仅基于投票规则数学属性的预测以及有关纯粹排行假设的精确性表示了质疑。     

Islets through Time: The Definition, Dating and Distribution of Scottish Crannogs

Scottish crannogs or lake dwellings are considered to be structurally varied sites with an extremely wide distribution, used from the neolithic up until at least the 17th century AD. As a result assumptions about the dating and form of individual sites are considered impossible without excavation. This paper demonstrates that the current classifications lack utility and that the long chronology view is misleading. It is suggested that there is a far more subtle spectrum of identifiably distinct monuments which can be arranged into types, and that these types have, on the basis of the current radiocarbon evidence, a chronological significance.     

Making connections: a fresh analysis of an early neolithic pit and its contents

Outlined here is a new and detailed assessment of two Early Neolithic pits discovered in 1933 by Dr. E.C. Curwen on New Barn Down, Worthing. Newly obtained radiocarbon dates that place the pits between 4000–3800 BC make them amongst the earliest Neolithic features in Sussex and southern England. It is proposed that the pits (collectively known as Pit X) display connections not only to the nearby flint mines, but also to the immediate coastal zone and to wider England. The examination illuminates the practices of an Early Neolithic community, who were not only extracting flint from the nearby mines, but also familiar with new forms of material culture and social customs.