In security, as in other areas, the emergence of transnational private organizations with a central role in governance poses profound challenges to established conceptions of democracy. This paper discusses one side of this challenge by looking at accountability of private security companies (PSCs). PSCs have become authorities in their own right in the security sphere. This has raised the ques...

This paper introduces a design for the taxonomical representation of participants’ instantial meaningmaking, as the basis for providing a measure of ambiguity and contestation. We use hyponymy and meronymy as the basis for our taxonomies and adopt the System Network formalism as the basis for their representation. We achieve an integration of transcript and taxonomy using an XML based ‘satellit...

The introduction of new energy technologies may lead to public resistance and contestation. It is often argued that this phenomenon is caused by an inadequate inclusion of relevant public values in the design of technology. In this paper we examine the applicability of the value sensitive design (VSD) approach. While VSD was primarily introduced for incorporating values in technological design,...

This paper develops a critical framework on international management and production that draws from the literatures on global commodity chains and global production networks (GPNs), from institutional entrepreneurship, as well as from neo-Gramscian theory in international political economy. The framework views GPNs as integrated economic, political, and discursive systems, in which market and p...

In a much-cited recent article, Obermeyer, Murray, and Gakidou (2008a) examine estimates of wartime fatalities from injuries for thirteen countries. Their analysis poses a major challenge to the battle-death estimating methodology widely used by conflict researchers, engages with the controversy over whether war deaths have been increasing or decreasing in recent decades, and takes the debate o...

This article seeks to elaborate the roles of some Muslim scholars and activists who, thanks advancement internet technology, have shaped new forms religious life in Indonesia. Using social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, they advocate their ideas attract followers from groups. These Muslims are divided into four ideologies, namely conservative, moderate, liberal t...

This paper introduces the theoretical lens of the everyday to intersect and extend the emerging bodies of research on contestational design and infrastructures of civic engagement. Our analysis of social theories of everyday life suggests a design space that distinguishes ‘privileged moments’ of civic engagement from a more holistic understanding of the everyday as ‘product-residue.’ We analyze...