How sensitive are bargaining outcomes to changes in disagreement payoffs?

We use a human-subjects experiment to investigate how bargaining outcomes are affected by changes in bargainers’ disagreement payoffs. Subjects bargain against changing opponents, with randomly drawn asymmetric disagreement outcomes that vary over plays of the game, and with complete information about disagreement payoffs and the cake size. We find that subjects only respond about half as much as theoretically predicted to changes in their own disagreement payoff and to changes in their opponent’s disagreement payoff. This effect is observed in a standard Nash demand game and a related unstructured bargaining game, in both early and late rounds, and is robust to moderate changes in stake sizes. We show theoretically that standard models of expected utility maximisation are unable to account for this under-responsiveness, even when generalised to allow for risk aversion. We also show that quantal-response equilibrium has, at best, mixed success in characterising our results. However, a simple model of other-regarding preferences can explain our main results.

The politics of disagreement in critical education policy studies: a response to Morsy, Gulson and Clarke

This paper engages with Morsy, Gulson and Clarke's response to the recent special issue of Discourse (Vol. 34, No. 2) that examined evolutions of markets and equity in education. We welcome Morsy, Gulson and Clarke's supplementation of the special issue with the genealogical analysis they provide of private school funding in Australia and the attention they draw to elisions of race, ethnicity, Indigeneity and whiteness in contemporary framings of equity in policy and research. We also clarify and expand on some of the aims and arguments that framed the special issue. However, we feel that any response adequate to the ‘event’ that Morsy, Gulson and Clarke hope to stage – that is, a ‘debate redux’ and politics of dissensus in education as an antidote to depoliticisation – must extend beyond the rehearsal of pre-existing positions; it cannot stop at endorsing or critiquing the points raised in their paper, or reiterating the rationales and arguments of the special issue. We therefore respond by gesturing towards possibilities for ‘disagreement’, in the sense that Jacques Ranciere gives this term, about the political vocation of critical policy sociologists, and the modes of doing and being that can be seen as ‘critical’ and ‘political’ in academic education research. We do not disagree with Morsy, Gulson and Clarke in the usual sense; for that reason, we engage seriously with their call for a politics of dissensus in education.

Ultrafine grained structure formation in steels using dynamic strain induced transformation processing

The refinement of ferrite grain size is the most generally accepted approach to simultaneously improve the strength and toughness in steels. Historically, the level of ferrite refinement is limited to 5-10 μm using conventional industrial approaches. Nowadays, though, several thermomechanical processes have been developed to produce ferrite grain sizes of 1-3 μm or less, ranging from extreme thermal and deformation cycles to more typical thermomechanical processes. The present paper reviews the status of the production of ultrafine grained steels through relatively simple thermomechanical processing. This requires deformation within the Ae3 to Ar3 temperature range for a given alloy. Here, the formation of ultrafine ferrite (UFF) involves the dynamic transformation of a significant volume fraction of the austenite to ferrite. This dynamic strain induced transformation (DSIT) arises from the introduction of extensive intragranular nucleation sites that are not present in conventional controlled rolling. The DSIT route has the potential to be adjusted to suit current industrial infrastructure. However, there are a number of significant issues that have been raised, both as gaps in our understanding and as obstacles to industrial implementation. One of the critical issues is that it appears that very large strains are required. Combined with this concern is the issue of whether a combination of dynamic and static transformation can be used to achieve an adequate level of refinement. Another issue that has also become apparent is that grain sizes of 1 μm can lead to low levels of ductility and hence many workers are attempting to obtain 2-3 μm grains, or to introduce a second phase to provide the required ductility. There are also a number of areas of disagreement between authors including the role of dynamic recrystallisation of ferrite in the production of UFF by DSIT, the reasons for the low coarsening rate of UFF grains, the role of microalloying elements and the effects of austenite grain size and strain rate. The present review discusses these areas of controversy and highlights cases where experimental results do not agree.

Chaos theory and assessment of forest stakeholder attitudes towards Australian forest policy

The Regional Forest Agreement process has dominated Australian forest policy for the past decade. The RFA process set in place a mechanism by which benchmark conservation values were established for forest  ecosystems, whilst addressing the needs of the timber industry. The outcomes of a number of RFA's have been fraught with controversy. Key stakeholder groups have shown disagreement with processes and  outcomes of methods employed by government both in establishing conservation reserves and areas allocated to timber harvesting. This research uses non-linear techniques to examine the dynamical behavior in stakeholder responses and to identify patterns of behavior that may lead to prediction of stakeholder responses. The method developed in this research provides a bridge between social sciences and Chaos theory.¹

Delphi expert consultation. Final report. Report to Department of Health, Victims of Violence and Abuse Prevention Programme

This report presents the results of one piece of research conducted as a part of the VVAPP programme, namely a three round Delphi consultation. This Delphi consultation was undertaken to identify where there is and is not consensus among experts about what is known and what works in the treatment and care of people affected by child sexual abuse, domestic violence and abuse, and rape and sexual assault. While helping to identify areas of agreement and disagreement about effective mental health service responses, the consultation will also support the evidence base derived from the literature review that is being undertaken as part of the wider VVAPP programme of work

Transnational citizenship: problems of definition, culture and democracy

There is widespread disagreement over whether transnational citizenship provides defensible extensions of, or meaningful complements to, national citizenship. A significant strand of criticism relies upon empirical arguments about political motivation and the consequences of transnationalism. This paper addresses two questions arising from empirical arguments relating to the nation state and democracy. Do the alleged cultural requirements for effective political action provide an insuperable barrier to transnational citizenship? Does transnational citizenship necessarily require a commitment to transnational democracy? I argue that these largely empirical criticisms do not succeed in casting doubt upon the normative plausibility or practical viability of transnational projects. On the first question, I point to a growing transnational political culture that serves to motivate transnational citizens. On the second question, I argue for a legitimate category of transnational citizenship that, although inspired by cosmopolitan morality, is different from it, and that does not require transnational democracy.

“Critchley is Žižek” : in defence of critical political philosophy

In an ironically Žižekian manner, this paper argues that Simon Critchley and Slavoj Žižek's apparent political disagreement (ludic reformist versus strident revolutionary) conceal a common set of preconditions and presuppositions. These presuppositions can be summed by the slogan “the forgetting of political philosophy”, which more specifically means the forgetting of the difference between philosophy and political life, and the reflective need to find mediations between the two. Critchley's turn to humour honours the notion that politics is about the realm of appearances, while Žižek's frank avowal of the “diabolical evil” of the subject of the death drive makes patently clear the dangers posed by a “politics of Truth”.

Relative responsiveness of bargaining solutions to changes in status-quo payoffs

It is a well-known fact that several prominent bargaining solutions are responsive to changes in status-quo (i.e., disagreement or fallback) payoffs. When an agent’s status-quo payoff increases, his solution payoff either stays the same or increases. A fully general result for these solutions’ status-quo point ranking is impossible to establish. In this paper, using an important class of bargaining problems, a ranking of the relative status-quo point responsiveness of prominent bargaining solutions is obtained. Using the Constant Elasticity of Substitution class of bargaining problems, regardless of the concavity of the Pareto frontier and the level of increase in one’s status-quo payoff, we find the equal gains solution is the most responsive with respect to changes in status-quo payoffs, followed by the Nash solution. The equal sacrifice solutions is the least responsive, followed by the Kalai/Smorodinsky solution.

English language reform and the process of democratic change

Malaysian society has and is undergoing considerable social, political, economic and educational change. Scholars point to the forces of globalization and the needs to be able to meet the challenges of globalization as the central driver of language policy. Commentators, academics and many in the general public have focused on the need for Malaysia to adapt to globalization and the importance of English to this process given the needs and characteristic of the knowledge economy. However, there appears to be less recognition of the way such a change in Malaysian language policy needs to be engaged in a dynamically shifting knowledge society and developing public sphere. Language is a social act and the debate over language and its place and role in society is therefore a debate over the nature and quality of social interaction. Debate over language is thus inherently political. Due to the growth and development of an interactive and engaged public sphere and knowledge society in Malaysia, there is a need to approach to the idea of engaging English that grasps the plurality and complexity of its role in the world. The political approach to engaging English in Malaysia needs to engage democratic deliberation in a society that is increasingly fragmented but also showing signs of developing an active public sphere not beholden to top down authority. Disagreement over language and the way the debate is theorized hides from view the possibility of points of consensus on the issue of English language and Malaysian education. Establishing overlapping consensus through public deliberation and consultation is a necessary precondition to effective language policy in contemporary Malaysia. Failure to understand this only leads to policy paralysis.

Noncooperative foundations of the area monotonic solution

Given a finite set of alternatives, players alternate making offers. Player 1 offers some alternative that 2 can accept or veto. If 2 accepts, it is enforced, and the game ends. Otherwise, 2 makes a counteroffer among the remaining alternatives, and so on. If all alternatives are vetoed, a disagreement alternative is enforced. First, we characterize the unique outcome of any subgame perfect equilibrium of this game. Then, we show that this outcome converges to the Area Monotonic Solution if the alternatives are uniformly distributed over the bargaining set, and as the number of alternatives tends to infinity.

Domestic and sexual violence and abuse : findings from a Delphi expert consultation on therapeutic and treatment interventions with victims, survivors and abusers, children adolescents, and adults

This report presents the results of one piece of research conducted as a part of the Victims of Violence and Abuse Prevention Programme (VVAPP) in the UK, namely a three round Delphi consultation. This Delphi consultation was undertaken to identify where there is and is not consensus among experts about what is known and what works in the treatment and care of people affected by child sexual abuse, domestic violence and abuse, and rape and sexual assault. It enables the identification of areas of agreement and disagreement about effective mental health service responses, and thereby contributes to the evidence base in this area.

Missionary Albert Kruyt and colonial modernity in the Dutch East Indies

Intense debates emerged in the Dutch East Indies during the course of the third decade of the twentieth century concerning the role of missionaries in the development of the Outer Islands of the Indonesian archipelago. Ostensibly concerning “native welfare”, disagreement fundamentally reflected underlying fractures within the Dutch nation, projected through its “colonial mission” concerning the nature of modernity. While the main focus appeared to be a disagreement concerning the goals of mission and government agencies, it would be too simplistic to characterise the debate as one between adherents of a secular versus a religious world view. This paper considers the question of “missions and modernity” in the context of this debate about “native development” in the Dutch East Indies through the prism of the Poso mission in Central Sulawesi, headed by missionary Albert Kruyt, one of the foremost missionaries of his day.

The ALP after 2004

In 2004, for the first time in the two decades for which Australian Election Study (AES) data has become available, more blue-collar workers cast their primary vote for the Coalition parties than for Labor. Blue-collar support for Labor had partially recovered under Beazley in 1998 and 2001 following its dramatic drop under Keating in 1996 but it dropped to even lower levels under Latham in 2004. This paper analyses AES survey data, the actual voting results in each federal electorate and the demographic characteristics of those electorates to discuss the nature of Labor’s latest national election defeat and the reasons for it. There is considerable disagreement among commentators as to whether Labor has lost the last four national elections because it has failed to reconnect with its traditional voter base; or because it has failed to go beyond that base. Much of the disagreement centres on how blue-collar workers are to be understood. Are they ‘battlers’ and victims of ‘globalisation’ or have they become prosperous, upwardly-mobile and ‘aspirational’? Related questions include whether the most salient issues for blue-collar voters are economic, or cultural; and whether the most important inequalities in Australian society should be measured in terms of income; or occupation; or geographic location (including degree of distance from the inner-city). This paper analyses the policies presented in the 2004 election and engages with informed journalistic analyses, and contributions from past and present politicians, in addition to the work of political scientists, to help make sense of precisely where and why Labor lost support in 2004 and the implications this has for future ALP policy and strategy. The paper also contributes to the longer-term debates about the reasons for Howard’s electoral ascendancy since 1996; and the role and constituency of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party.

On a clear day you can see forever : integrating values and skills in sex offender treatment

The topic of sex offender rehabilitation frequently evokes fierce reactions, ranging from strident demands for harsher sentences contrasted with calls for more imaginative and compassionate sentencing options. There seems to be a polarization of positions centred on the question of offenders' moral standing: are they moral strangers or fellow travellers? This fundamental disagreement about offenders' moral status is at the core of a number of independent, although related current practice and research issues confronting the field, namely: (1) risk management versus strength-based treatment approaches; (2) the utility of utilizing individually tailored versus manual-based programmes for offenders; (3) focusing on the technical aspects or therapy as opposed to relationship and therapist factors (what has been called process issues); and (4) the conflict between protecting the community versus promoting the interests of offenders. In this paper I suggest that an approach to sex offender treatment based on a combination of human rights theory (an ethical resource) and strengths-based approaches can help us navigate our way through the above dilemmas in a way that addressees both the needs of offenders and those of the community.

Selecting the individual numerical scale and prioritization method in the analytic hierarchy process : a 2-tuple fuzzy linguistic approach

The validity of the priority vector used in the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) relies on two factors: the selection of a numerical scale and the selection of a prioritization method. The traditional AHP selects only one numerical scale (e.g., the Saaty scale) and one prioritization method (e.g., the eigenvector method) for each particular problem. For this traditional selection approach, there is disagreement on which numerical scale and prioritization method is better in deriving a priority vector. In fact, the best numerical scale and the best prioritization method both rely on the content of the pairwise comparison data provided by the AHP decision makers. By defining a set of concepts regarding the scale function and the linguistic pairwise comparison matrices (LPCMs) of the priority vector and by using LPCMs to unify the format of the input and output of AHP, this paper extends the AHP prioritization process under the 2-tuple fuzzy linguistic model. Based on the extended AHP prioritization process, we present two performance measure criteria to evaluate the effect of the numerical scales and prioritization methods. We also use the performance measure criteria to develop a 2-tuple fuzzy linguistic multicriteria approach to select the best numerical scales and the best prioritization methods for different LPCMs. In this paper, we call this type of selection the individual selection of the numerical scale and prioritization method. We also compare this individual selection with traditional selection by using both random and real data and show better results with individual selection.