Open-economy Central Banking: Explaining Australia's Recommitment to Central Bank Independence

Why do governments offload major instruments such as monetary policy to an independent central bank? This article answers this question in relation to the Australian case, a case which reflects wider global developments. The article challenges the methodology of quantitative approaches to explaining central bank independence and instead argues that a model of 'embedded statism' is the most fruitful explanatory approach.     

Interpreting collective action: Methodology and ideology in the analysis of social movements in France

The meaning of contentious collective action has itself always been open to contention. This is true not only of the historiography of revolutions, for example, but also of social science analyses of other, arguably less extreme, forms of contemporary 'contestation'. While up to the 1960s studies of collective action in Europe focused largely on the labour movement, since then much attention has also been paid to 'new' social movements. This article examines some of the methodological and ideological considerations which have shaped the analysis of social movements in France and influenced the debate in recent years as to their significance.     

Highland Fisher-Folk and their Superstitions.

Studies on the history of folkloristics in colonial India during the second part of the nineteenth century have been hampered by excessive focus on European folklorists who published extensive collections of Indian folklore. The role of the indigenous folklorists and their agendas, as well as their ways of knowing and constructing folklore, has been ignored. The present article examines the contributions of the indigenous scholar V. N. Narasimmiyengar, an Indian civil servant in Mysore. It seeks to trace, examine, and analyse his active contribution to the making of folklore studies. The case of Narasimmiyengar may be regarded as representative of an engagement with modernity that led to a view of folklore as traditional, rural, and in need of the touch of civilization.     

IMMIGRANT ENCLAVES AND CRIME*

ABSTRACT We study the link between neighborhood immigrant concentration and crime in England. Over previous decades there has been a significant increase in the number of immigrant enclaves, where immigrants account for a substantial fraction of the local population. Using both recorded crime and self‐reported crime victimization data, we find that crime is significantly lower in those neighborhoods with sizeable immigrant population shares. The effect is nonlinear and only becomes significant in enclaves. The crime reducing effect is substantially enhanced if the enclave is composed of immigrants from the same ethnic background. We discuss some possible mechanisms for the results we observe.