The British Academy Brian Barry Prize Essay Why Is There No Just Riot Theory?

Given the prevalence of riots throughout human history, the lack of normative theorizing about them compared to other forms of political violence is striking. The author hypothesizes that this is due to riots' extra-institutionality. Riots are extra-public because they involve the participation of crowds, rather than institutionalized groups such as parties or social movements. They are extra-state because they violate the state's monopoly on violence. Riots are extra-legal because they constitute a form of unlawful assembly. They are also extra-parliamentary because they operate outside the normal legislative process. This article considers justifiable reasons to resist each of these foundational institutions, and proposes provisional criteria for a justifiable riot. The author concludes by urging political theorists to further examine the normative dimension of riots.

MIGRATIONS, POWER AND URBAN SPACES IN SICILIJA THROUGH AN ETHNOGRAPHIC CASE STUDY

In this article, the author, based on concrete factual material, explores the specifics of modern migration processes considered within an urban area localized in Palermo (Sicily). In the context of this complex heterotopic space, resorting to the conceptual apparatus of M. Foucault, this kind of rhizome, if we operate with the concepts of J. Deleuze and F.Guattari, the author analyzes the actions of various actors of power – local and transnational – which dominate in this closed socio-urban environment, outlined by the framework of certain city blocks, – formal and informal, institutionalized and not, state and extra-state, legal and illegal, political, social, ecclesiastical, economic, criminal, the objects of projection and manifestation of which are migrants (primarily illegal) concentrated in these urban areas, who coexist there with the local population. The author also studies reactions of “newcomers” to the factors that affect them, including their ways of understanding and familiarizing with of their new place of residence as a micro- and the macrocosm, in all the diversity and complexity of the social connections that permeate this habitat and the factors that affect it.

Dirac and Lagrange Algebraic Constraints in Nonlinear Port-Hamiltonian Systems

After recalling the definitions of standard port-Hamiltonian systems and their algebraic constraints, called here Dirac algebraic constraints, an extended class of port-Hamiltonian systems is introduced. This is based on replacing the Hamiltonian function by a general Lagrangian submanifold of the cotangent bundle of the state space manifold, motivated by developments in (Barbero-Linan et al., J. Geom. Mech. 11, 487–510, 2019) and extending the linear theory as developed in (van der Schaft and Maschke, Syst. Control Lett. 121, 31–37, 2018) and (Beattie et al., Math. Control Signals Syst. 30, 17, 2018). The resulting new type of algebraic constraints equations are called Lagrange algebraic constraints. It is shown how Dirac algebraic constraints can be converted into Lagrange algebraic constraints by the introduction of extra state variables, and, conversely, how Lagrange algebraic constraints can be converted into Dirac algebraic constraints by the use of Morse families.

Money in the 21st Century: some inklings and an open field for reflection

Presentation of the dossier "Money in the 21st Century: Digital Exchange, Extra-State Currencies, and the Relational Character of Money".

Why Are Some Civil Wars More Lethal Than Others? The Effect of Pro-Regime Proxies on Conflict Lethality

Previous large-N studies on conflict lethality have focused in large part either on structural factors or on the properties of key conflict protagonists – governments and rebels. This article challenges the dyadic two-actor approach to studying conflict lethality that examines exclusively the key actors of the dyad, and – on the example of pro-regime militias – hypothesises that participation of extra-state actors in civil wars can exert significant influence on battlefield lethality. It is proposed here that pro-regime militias can swell the number of combat deaths through, first of all, acting as ‘extra boots’ on the ground, providing governments with auxiliary forces and local intelligence, and enabling incumbents to launch more effective and often more deadly attacks on insurgents. Militias also affect the number of battle deaths by forcing rebels to protect their civilian support bases, which exposes insurgents to lethal government attacks. This assumption is empirically tested on 88 civil wars from 1981 to 2015 with militia presence. The findings show that the presence of pro-regime militias in civil wars is highly conducive to the incidence of high-casualty conflicts.

Conclusion

The conclusion examines smuggling’s consequences for the larger history of colonialism in the Atlantic world. It reiterates that smuggling is the story of empire building and that, despite the desires of coastal inhabitants and imperial policy makers, this was a collaborative process. Extra-state actors powered the economic development of empires. This process produced common cosmopolitanism as subjects of different empires and cultures interacted over trade and mobility. The conclusion also emphasizes the tension between fluid Atlantic histories and the early modern borders and regulations of empire that enabled and ensnared subjects in this period.

‘No peace, no war’ proponents? How pro-regime militias affect civil war termination and outcomes

Previous research on non-state actors involved in civil wars has tended to disregard the role of extra-dyad agents in influencing conflict outcomes. Little is known as to whether the presence of such extra-dyadic actors as pro-regime militias affects conflict termination and outcomes. This article develops and tests a number of hypotheses on the pro-government militias’ effect upon civil war outcomes. It proposes that pro-regime militias involved in intrastate conflicts tend to act as proponents of ‘no peace, no war’, favouring low-activity violence and ceasefires over other conflict outcomes. These hypotheses are examined using an expanded dataset on pro-government militias and armed conflict in a statistical analysis of 229 civil war episodes from 1991 to 2015. These findings shed new light on the role of extra-state actors in civil wars.

NUMERICAL PRICING OF CoCo BONDS WITH PARISIAN TRIGGER FEATURE USING THE FORTET METHOD

Unlike conventional convertible bonds, contingent convertible (CoCo) bonds are converted into equity shares of the issuing bank subject to certain trigger mechanisms (accounting and/or regulatory trigger) when the issuing bank is under financial nonviable state. We consider pricing of these CoCo bonds using the contingent claims approach, where the state variables are the stock price and Tier 1 capital ratio. We use the Parisian feature to model the regulatory trigger where equity conversion is triggered when the capital ratio stays under the nonviable state consecutively for a certain period of time. The accounting trigger is modeled using the one-touch barrier feature associated with the capital ratio. The Parisian trigger feature adds one extra path dependent state variable in the pricing model of a CoCo bond. We design effective numerical algorithms for pricing the CoCo bonds using the extended Fortet method that avoid adding one extra state variable for the Parisian feature of regulatory trigger. Pricing properties of the CoCo bonds under both regulatory trigger and accounting trigger are explored.

The perforated borders of labour migration and the formal state

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the variation in migrant labour market regimes and what these reveal about variant patterns of state and extra state regulation in two contemporary political economies. Design/methodology/approach Research based upon a participatory action research agenda in Mexico and the north of Ireland. Migrant workers and their families where involved in the project and its development. This included participation in the research design, its focus and purpose. Findings Migrant workers experiences of labour market subordination are part of wider processes of subordination and exclusion involving both the state, but also wider, often meta- and para-state, agents. In different locations, states and contexts, the precarity experienced by migrant workers and their families highlights the porosity of the formal rational legal state and moreover, in the current economic context, the compatibility of illegality and state sponsored neoliberal economic policies. Research limitations/implications It is important to extend this study to other geographic and political economy spaces. Practical implications The study challenges the limits of state agency suggesting the need for extra state, i.e. civil society, participation to support and defend migrant workers. Originality/value Notwithstanding the two very different socio-economic contexts, the paper reveals that the interaction, dependence and restructuring of migrant labour markets can be understood within the context of meta- and para-state activities that link neoliberal employment insecurities. Migrants’ experiences illustrate the extent to which even formal legal employment relations can also be sustained by para- and meta- (illegal and alegal) actions and institutions.