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Maximizing utility or avoiding losses? Uncovering decision rule-heterogeneity in sociological research with an application to neighborhood choice
Get PDFEmpirical studies on individual behavior often, implicitly or explicitly, assume a single type of decision rule. Other studies do not specify behavioral assumptions at all. We advance sociological research by introducing (random) regret minimization, which is related to loss aversion, into the sociological literature and by testing it against (random) utility maximization, which is the most prominent decision rule in sociological research on individual behavior. With an application to neighborhood choice, in a sample of four European cities, we combine stated choice experiment data and discrete choice modelling techniques and find a considerable degree of decision rule-heterogeneity, with a strong prevalence of regret minimization and hence loss aversion. We also provide indicative evidence that decision rules can affect expected neighborhood demand at the macro level. Our approach allows identifying heterogeneity in decision rules, i.e. the degree of regret/loss aversion, at the level of choice attributes such as the share of foreigners when comparing neighborhoods, and can improve sociological practice related to linking theories and social research on decision making
Police Court Rota : women’s archiving and access to legal life in early twentieth-century England
Get PDFThe period of the early twentieth century is marked by an intense struggle on the part of women to gain access to professional careers and the public sphere. This paper contributes to a wider discourse on women’s professionalisation, by focusing specifically on women’s access to legal professions and the role archiving played in that process in the years preceding the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 in light of the Police Court Rota, run by the Association for Moral and Social Hygiene (AMSH). The members of the Rota acted as observers in criminal cases, interviewers, writers and activists at the time when women were formally excluded from courtrooms and legal life. The paper draws extensively from the archives of the AMSH and National Vigilance Association and argues that observations, legal record creation and archiving gave middle-class women volunteers access to legal professions and power, despite formal exclusions. These records and collections, in part, counter law’s missing archive on women and criminal justice. This paper examines what these counter archives tell us about exclusion of women from legal history and the role archiving played within women’s professionalisation, and in turn, how class and colonial bias manifested within that process of archive creation
Temporal ontology and joint action
Get PDFThe aim of the paper is to describe the temporal ontology of that basic manifestation of social agency that is the living of life together. The distinction between states, processes and events is clarified. There are notions of ‘doing things together’ that fall into each of these temporal categories. The ontology of the state of friendship is examined as one instance of living life together. Friendship is a state of community between agents that is sustained by a continuity of processes and events that are characteristic manifestations of the state, some (but not all) of which are processes of doing things together. The continuity of processes and events involved in friendship is distinctive in lacking a telic point. Further instances of shared life that possess this characteristic temporal structure are described. It is argued that this notion of a mode of shared life cannot be recovered from various kinds of temporally extended agential structures that are the ingredients of Michael Bratman’s work on shared agency. In so doing, I clarify the notion of a shared life and make a case for the fruitfulness of approaching questions about joint action from the perspective of work on the ontology of time occupation
Missing incomes in the UK : evidence and policy implications
Get PDFPolicymakers are liable to ‘treasure what is measured’ and overlook phenomena that are not. In an era of increased reliance on administrative data, existing policies also often determine what is measured in the first place. We explore this two-way interaction between measurement and policy in the context of the investment incomes and capital gains that are missing from the UK’s official income statistics. We show that these ‘missing incomes’ change the established picture of economic inequality over the past decade, revealing rising top income shares during the period of austerity. The underestimation of these forms of income in official statistics has hidden the impact of tax policies that disproportionately benefit the wealthiest. We urge a renewed focus on how policy affects and is affected by measurement
Truths, fakes, and the deserving queer migrant
Get PDFThis article explores the role of truth within queer migration. By analysing a host of cultural production—including the verbatim theatre performance Rights of Passage by Claire Summerskill, the short film Crypsis by Christopher McGill, the ethnofictional film Samira by Nicola Mai, and the film The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela by Olaf de Fleur Johannesson—I will challenge the necessity of attempting to discover the truth of queer migrants as sexual and gendered subjects, particularly as related to asylum claims. Yet if questions are raised about the importance of truth, this also demands analysing the role of faking sexuality and gender, and ‘fake’ queer migrants more broadly, referring to those who allegedly fabricate their sexuality and gender to claim asylum. Instead of suggesting faking implies the possibility of undeservingness, I use faking as a theoretical tool to understand the demands of truth, and how faking may become means to subvert the grounds of who is considered a deserving queer migrant seeking asylum. By disrupting the binary between truths and fakes, the very notion of there being truths of queer migrants (and the subject more broadly) will be questioned
Divisibility of spheres with measurable pieces
Get PDFFor an r-tuple (γ 1 ,…,γ r ) of special orthogonal d×d matrices, we say that the Euclidean (d−1)-dimensional sphere S d−1 is (γ 1 ,…,γ r )-divisible if there is a subset A⊆Sd−1 such that its translations by the rotations γ
1 ,…,γ r partition the sphere. Motivated by some old open questions of Mycielski and Wagon, we investigate the version of this notion where the set A has to be measurable with respect to the spherical measure. Our main result shows that measurable divisibility is impossible for a "generic" (in various meanings) r-tuple of rotations. This is in stark contrast to the recent result of Conley, Marks and Unger which implies that, for every "generic" r-tuple, divisibility is possible with parts that have the property of Baire
Spirituality of Science : implications for meaning, well-being, and learning
Get PDFScientists often refer to spiritual experiences with science. This research addresses this unique component of science attitudes—spirituality of science: feelings of meaning, awe, and connection derived through scientific ideas. Three studies (N = 1,197) examined individual differences in Spirituality of Science (SoS) and its benefits for well-being, meaning, and learning. Spirituality of Science was related to belief in science, but unlike other science attitudes, spirituality of science was also associated with trait awe and general spirituality (Study 1). spirituality of science also predicted meaning in life and emotional well-being in a group of atheists and agnostics, showing that scientific sources of spirituality can provide similar psychological benefits as religious spirituality (Study 2). Finally, Spirituality of Science predicted stronger engagement and recall of scientific information (Study 3). Results provide support for an experience of spirituality related to science, with benefits for meaning, well-being, and learning
A computationally efficient multiphysics model for friction stir welding with polygonal pin profiles
No full textThis study aims to model temperature distribution in friction stir welding (FSW) using various backing plates and polygonal pin profiles since temperature significantly modifies the microstructure and texture of the weld zone affecting the weld quality such as weld strength, hardness, etc. The experimental results depict the importance of temperature on the grain size and tensile strength of the materials. However, determining the temperature at each point of the weld is difficult and expensive in the case of experiments. Therefore, in order to accomplish the objective, it is necessary to perform simulations. This paper presents a 3-D transient multiphysics model developed for FSW combining multiple physical phenomena such as heat transfer and structural mechanics in a unified framework, COMSOL. A viscoplasticity model is chosen as behavior for the AA1100 aluminum material using Anand viscoplasticity. It is computationally efficient and accurate. The model fidelity to the twin FSW process is achieved by considering temperature-dependent yield strength. Modeling results show the polygonal pin profile edges to be influencing the temperature. Increasing the number of faces on the pin sides leads to a higher temperature. Specifically, transitioning from an octagonal to a decagonal profile results in a minimal increase in total heat generation. As the pin shape approaches cylindrical, there is a gradual convergence in heat generation with that of a cylindrical pin. Experiments are also carried out that validate simulation results. Overall, the model is sufficient to twin the process for predicting weld quality and is Industry 4.0-compliant
Does green finance promote green transformation of the real economy?
No full textDeepening green finance reform and promoting the green transformation of the real economy are important for sustainable development. We introduce a natural experiment, the 2017 Green Finance Reform and Innovation Pilot Zone in China, to investigate the impact of green finance reform on the green transformation of the real economy. We show that green finance policies can significantly promote the green transformation of the economy, and our results are robust to different models and specifications. The mechanism analysis shows that corporate environmental responsibility and supply chain responsibility play crucial roles in our results. The higher the degree of fulfillment of corporate environmental responsibility and supply chain responsibility, the more obvious the impact of green finance policy. The heterogeneity test shows that green finance can only promote green transformation in areas with non-state-owned enterprises and high environmental regulation intensity
Vertical mergers in ecosystems with consumer hold-up
Get PDFAn ecosystem comprises all downstream products that employ a certain upstream input. In many cases, final consumers make irreversible investments to join an ecosystem before downstream prices are set. By committing to buy products that use the specific ecosystem input, they are at risk of being held-up. Unable to observe future prices, consumers base their decisions on what they observe about the market structure within each ecosystem, including vertical contracts signed by the upstream firms. By entering into vertical agreements with multiple competing downstream firms, thus creating a credible expectation of lower prices, an upstream firm is able to mitigate consumers' hold-up problem and, as a result, increase ecosystem demand. Our main observation is that, in contrast to conventional wisdom, an upstream monopolist merging with one of its downstream affiliates will find it profitable to continue to serve downstream competitors, even when products sold downstream are homogeneous