Do reluctant voters vote less accurately? The effect of compulsory voting on party–voter congruence in Australia and Belgium

We know compulsory voting is associated with higher levels of electoral turnout. It has been suggested that this leads to a trade-off with the quality of the vote, i.e. the ideological congruence between voters and the party they vote for. In this study, this claim is investigated using data from the 2007, 2010, and 2013 elections in Australia. We also include a comparison with two recent elections in Belgium, another country with compulsory voting. The results show that reluctant voters vote less ideologically congruent, but that this effect is mediated by political knowledge and political interest. However, this does not lead to less ideologically congruent election results at the aggregate level and compulsory voting does not have an impact on electoral results. We speculate that in future studies, it is important to make a distinction between reluctant voters, and those who take a strong hostile stand on the electoral process.     

Faecal biomarker and archaeobotanical analyses of sediments from a public latrine shed new light on ruralisation in Sagalassos, Turkey

A public latrine in the ‘Imperial Baths’ of Sagalassos was transformed into a dump site in the early Byzantine period. Several layers of urban waste, including ceramics, bones, glass and perhaps excrements were deposited on the floor. Faecal biomarker analyses and archaeobotanical analyses were conducted to reconstruct the history of the room. 5β-stanols of human origin, such as coprostanol, were found in the sewage channels together with mineralised plant remains, indicating a human faecal context. The botanical remains are furthermore representative of the Roman diet of the Sagalassians. Soil layers, deposited on top of the latrine floor and dating to the early Byzantine period, contained herbivore derived 5β-stanols, such as 5β-stigmastanol and epi-5β-stigmastanol. Additionally, a clear predominance of epi-5β-stanols over 5β-stanols showed that the animal dung has been subject to composting. In this period, the former latrine was clearly used as a manure production site which is further confirmed by stratigraphic evidence of large amounts of urban waste artefacts, which were commonly collected together with manure before application on the fields. The results of the present study support the theory that off-site potsherd scattering can be used as a proxy for manuring events. Additionally, the data show key evidence for vertical migration of 5β-stanols and presumably also for the leaching of bile acids.     

A Case of Maternal and Perinatal Death in Neolithic Southern Vietnam,c. 2100–1050 BCE

Despite ostensibly elevated rates of young female mortality in the past, believed to be associated with the risks of pregnancy and child birth, surprisingly few cases of pregnant female burials are reported in the bioarchaeological literature. This paper describes and discusses the case of a young female who died and was interred with an unborn full‐term breech foetus at the Neolithic site of An Son, southern Vietnam c. 2100–1050BCE. Her exceptionally poor oral health, evidence for cribra orbitalia, linear enamel hypoplasia, small stature and compromised gynaecological competence, contributes to a differential diagnosis that explores a range of additional complications that may have contributed to the death of both mother and unborn child. An examination and appreciation of this case contribute to our knowledge of the reproductive age and health of young females in Neolithic Southern Vietnam and the challenges they faced during pregnancy and childbirth. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

BIFFOs,jackeens and Dagenham Yanks: county identity, “authenticity” and the Irish diaspora

Despite being an everyday point of reference in Irish discourse, the extent to which the county serves as a locus of identification has been oddly overlooked in the Irish studies literature. In particular, the persistence of identification with the county of origin post-migration offers new insights on the construction and maintenance of identity within the Irish diaspora. Drawing on my PhD research on discourses of authenticity and identity among the Irish in England, this article investigates the ways in which county identity is invoked both by Irish migrants and those of Irish descent. It illustrates how the county is used as a rhetorical tool to situate the speaker within discourses of belonging and authenticity, but how this may also act as a constraint on the articulation of a collective, diasporic identity. It argues for a greater research focus on translocalism within the context of changing Ireland–diaspora relations.     

At the nexus of academia and activism: bordermonitoring.eu

Abstract

This paper discusses the question of militant research from a perspective of critical knowledge production. In reference to our work on Dublin II and the European border regime, we discuss controversial issues, pitfalls and challenges we have encountered during out research and campaign activities. Among these are the strategic use of courts and a human rights language, differing modes of knowledge production between activism and academia and the issue of wage. The paper includes a discussion of the current place Asylum holds in the European border and migration regime from a historical and governmental perspective.     

Rationalité Contextuelle et Présupposé Cognitif le cas Lombroso

This article proposes an epistemological reflexion about the posture of the historian of human sciences towards his objects. Cesare Lombroso's theory of criminal anthropology was taken here as an example of the discussion because it seemed to be caricatural case. Considering that normative or whiggish perspectives cannot account for the logic of Lombroso's discourse, we attempt to develop here an alternative posture from which extrapolations could be made to other fields. This alternate is found in the introduction of the concepts of contextual rationality and cognitive presupposition and in a reconsideration of the time duration.     

NATIONAL INDUSTRIAL POLICY AND ECONOMICALLY DISTRESSED COMMUNITIES

Industrial policy refers to deliberate government actions to affect the growth or decline of firms or industries for the sake of aggregate national prosperity and international competitiveness. This paper presents empirical evidence that policies designed to promote these objectives would be targeted differently from those designed to promote development of economically-distressed regions and communities. Facing multiple objectives, it is difficult for the public sector to pursue industrial growth directly as effectively as can private entrepreneurs. However, government aid to economically-distressed locales and dislocated workers and firms may indirectly support national industrial policy goals.     

Toy Story: Homophily,Transmission and the Use of Simple Simulation Models for Assessing Variability in the Archaeological Record

The interpretation of spatial and temporal patterns in the archaeological record remains a long-standing issue in the discipline. Amongst many methods and interpretations, modelling of ‘biased transmission’ has proved a successful strategy to tackle this problem. Here, we investigate a type of biased transmission, homophily, that is the tendency of individuals to associate and bond with similar others. In contrast to other social sciences, homophily remains underused in archaeology. In order to fill this gap, we develop six distinct variants of a well-established modelling framework borrowed from social science, Axelrod’s Cultural Dissemination Model. These so-called toy models are abstract models used for theory-building and aim at exploring the interplay between homophily and various factors (e.g. addition of spatial features such as mountains and coastlines, diffusion of innovations and population spread). The relevance and implications of each ‘toy model’ for archaeological reasoning are then discussed.