bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Elections and Rural Development
Authors: Harding Robin
Published: March 2020

Chapter 2 presents the theoretical argument underlying the hypothesis that the introduction of competitive elections across Africa results in pro-rural development. This argument is motivated by a puzzle: despite widespread acceptance that party competition in Africa is dominated by issues of ethnicity and clientelism, not by an urban–rural cleavage, urban residents across Africa are significantly less likely to support incumbents than their rural counterparts. How can this stark urban–rural electoral cleavage be accounted for? After reviewing relevant existing literature, Chapter 2 argues that democratic elections make African governments more responsive to rural interests. This follows from acknowledgement of the particular demographic contexts in which electoral institutions are embedded across Africa. Because a majority of Africans live in rural areas, competitive elections create incentives for governments to implement pro-rural policies to win the support of the rural majority, thereby generating dissatisfaction among urban voters. The argument rests on the assumption that voters in Africa condition their votes on the provision of public goods and services, at least in part. This assumption is crucial, because if it does not hold then there would be no reason to think that politicians should implement pro-rural policies in order to win rural votes. This argument implies an important conditional effect, that incentives to implement pro-rural policies should dissipate as the size of the rural majority decreases. Consequently, the extent of urban–rural differences in development outcomes resulting from electoral competition should be conditional on levels of urbanization. Taken together, the theoretical argument implies three key empirical implications: (1) across Africa, urban hostility towards incumbents and dissatisfaction with democracy should be conditional on levels of urbanization; (2) the distribution of benefits resulting from democratic electoral competition should be targeted primarily towards rural areas; (3) the extent of pro-rural targeting of the democratic dividend should be conditional on levels of urbanization.
Microfoundations: Voting for Public Goods in Ghana
Authors: Harding Robin
Published: March 2020

Chapter 5 evaluates the core assumption underlying the argument that voters in Africa engage in evaluative voting and condition their support on the provision of public goods and services. This assumption is crucial because without it there would be no reason to think that politicians should implement pro-rural policies in order to win rural votes. Moreover, it is not obvious that the assumption holds, because existing work on the determinants of voter choice in African elections has focused predominantly on issues of clientelism and ethnic voting. In examining whether voters in Africa use elections to hold governments accountable for their performance in office, Chapter 5 narrows the focus to a single country, Ghana. Doing so accounts for important contextual variations in how goods are provided, which influence the extent to which responsibility for this provision can be attributed to political action. The analysis uses data on two types of goods to investigate whether Ghanaian voters are evaluative. First it looks at education, considering a range of inputs at the district level. Usefully, analysis of this data supports the idea that voters are more likely to condition their support on the provision of goods and services which can be attributed to political action than on those which cannot. Acknowledging limitations to inference resulting from aggregation to the district level, the chapter then turn to roads. Analysis of an original panel dataset containing detailed information on road conditions throughout Ghana provides even more robust evidence that electoral support is affected by the provision of public goods.
Conclusion
Authors: Harding Robin
Published: March 2020

The concluding chapter brings together the implications and insights from the four empirical chapters, reconsidering the theoretical claim in the light of this evidence. It also discusses the generalizability of the findings, both for Africa as a whole and for new democracies throughout the world. Finally, it attempts to situate the argument and findings in the context of an ever-changing Africa. In doing so, it considers the impact of urban–rural linkages, and the implications of rapid demographic changes taking place across the continent. In a continent that has been experiencing historically unprecedented rates of urbanization, how should we expect political incentives, and subsequent policies, to evolve? How might pro-rural development affect the nature of urban–rural relations across Africa? How in turn might this influence the nature of electoral competition? And finally, how much reason do we have to be optimistic about democracy in Africa?
The Construction Sector in Developing Countries
Authors: Kirchberger Martina
Published: March 2020

The construction sector plays a key role in providing public and private infrastructure as well as housing. This chapter surveys the literature on central issues pertaining to the construction sector with a focus on low-income countries. It starts by highlighting distinctive features of goods produced by the construction sector and discusses the link between natural resource discovery or exploitation and the construction sector. It then summarizes our knowledge about differences in unit costs across time and space and how these affect the relationship between investment effort and investment outcomes. The chapter also considers key bottlenecks in the sector related to organization and capabilities, institutional constraints, critical inputs, and governance and corruption. It concludes by discussing policy options related to institutional and regulatory reforms as well as procurement and local content.
Rowing against the Current
Authors: Page John
Published: March 2020

It is likely that Africa holds almost a third of the world’s reserves of minerals, oil, and gas. The exploitation of natural resources is a huge opportunity, but it also carries considerable risks. The exploitation of natural resources is a huge opportunity, but one that carries considerable risks. Relative prices in resource-exporting economies tend to push them towards economic structures dominated by the resource sector. This chapter explores ways to achieve diversification in a resource-rich economy. It describes the relative price changes that accompany a resource boom and suggests policies and public investments to mitigate their impact. It explores some of the issues that influence the participation of local firms in the resource value chain and argues for broadening the options for diversification, through the development of ‘industries without smokestacks’ and investments in knowledge.
The Construction Sector in Mozambique
Authors: Cruz António S. , Fernandes Francisco , Mafambissa Fausto J. , Pereira Francisco
Published: March 2020

Mozambique’s construction sector has long played an important role in the economy. However, this sector has proven to be vulnerable to economic fluctuations, such as those which emerged after 2014 with the macroeconomic and debt crisis, and faces challenges which need to be addressed through long-term sector policies. International experience shows that investment in infrastructure and human capital can play a key role in economic development by enabling expansion in activities, deeper intersectoral integration, and structural transformation in the long run. However, when countries face high construction costs, this can negatively affect the quality of public infrastructures. Moreover, bottlenecks affecting construction companies prevent them from expanding, which leads to an increase in costs and prices when there is a surge in demand. This chapter aims both to identify the main bottlenecks affecting the sector and to present some policy measures.
Local Content and the Prospects for Economic Diversification in Mozambique
Authors: Dietsche Evelyn , Esteves Maria
Published: March 2020

In recent years, Mozambique has made international headlines for the significant hydrocarbon deposits found offshore. These have increased the country’s extractive resource endowments, in addition to its mining and onshore natural gas sector. It is expected that these industries will contribute to economic diversification and social development, not least by means of procuring locally produced goods and services and hiring Mozambicans. A key factor to achieve this is building domestic capital—in people, institutions, and infrastructure. Looking at the policy environment, this chapter argues that the prospects are extremely challenging for ‘local content’ to provide the link between the extractive industries and the economic diversification of the local economy. The country needs institutional changes that support broader and rural-focused private sector development.
Gas in Tanzania
Authors: Henstridge Mark
Published: March 2020

There are large volumes of gas offshore Tanzania, which has raised hopes of a boom and accelerated economic development. With such big numbers associated with the natural gas, it is not hard to imagine the fantastic prospects of increased wealth and accelerated development. But those hopes look set to be disappointed. A boom would depend heavily on there being a sizeable flow of revenue to government from producing and exporting gas. This chapter sets out the scale of the gas, and the array of risks which currently make investment in gas production, and any associated boom, unlikely. As well as geological, engineering, and market risks, the risks to investment from public policy have been elevated over the last few years.
Local Content
Authors: Ellis Mia , McMillan Margaret
Published: March 2020

Tanzania is rich with natural resources, which have significant potential to contribute to the country’s economic development. Several laws recently passed in Tanzania are dedicated to establishing linkages between foreign firms in natural resource extraction and the local economy. This chapter documents this legislation and the institutions set up to enforce and monitor these laws. Effectiveness of local content legislation and the potential for firms in the mining sector to contribute to local development are then evaluated using a combination of qualitative and quantitative evidence. The chapter next uses existing data to explore trends in local content and the estimate the value of local content in the mining sector; this exercise highlights the need for improved data. We then examine other developing countries’ experiences with local content legislation, drawing lessons for Tanzania.
Construction and Public Procurement in Uganda
Authors: Colonnelli Emanuele , Ntungire Nicole
Published: March 2020

As it transitions to an oil-producing country, Uganda’s investments in infrastructure and physical capital will increasingly depend on the ability of the construction sector to respond to surges in demand and transform investment effort into outcomes. Using administrative and survey data, this chapter sets out to examine the current bottlenecks to production faced by the construction sector in Uganda and identifies possible policy remedies to relieve them. A secondary point of emphasis in the chapter’s analysis is the interaction between government and construction firms through public procurement, and the instrumental role procurement plays in the efficient development of the industry. These new opportunities and challenges raise several questions. How much of the increased economic activity will be passed to the domestic private sector? Will these opportunities motivate efficiency and transparency? Would corruption and inefficiency in public procurement still play a major role as a barrier to industry development?
The Boom–Bust Cycle of Global Copper Prices, Structural Change, and Industrial Development in Zambia
Authors: Liebenthal Robert , Cheelo Caesar
Published: March 2020

This chapter is about understanding the cycle of global copper price booms and busts over Zambia’s economic history. We explore how the mining industry has been managed, and wider economic management during boom periods. We find that successive Zambian governments did not use copper revenues to accumulate productive assets, focusing instead on financing consumption subsidies and sustaining inefficient state-owned companies. In recent times, Zambia has accumulated worryingly high levels of sovereign debt with virtually no prospect of official debt relief. Nonetheless, a reasonable chance exists of avoiding debt distress, provided the authorities consistently pursue strong fiscal management and discipline. Ultimately, Zambia’s ability to ring-fence and prudently use the mineral revenues from copper mining in building productive capacities remains elusive. Instead recurrent consumption expenditure demands dominate the fiscal landscape and the agenda of the fiscal authorities.
Local Content in Zambia—a Faltering Experience?
Authors: Lombe Wilfred C.
Published: March 2020

At independence in 1964, Zambia inherited an economy driven by copper mining. This has not changed despite post-independence policies to industrialize and diversify the economy. This chapter traces the role of local content in Zambia’s mining sector in supporting industrialization and economic diversification. It assesses productive linkages and manufacturing competitiveness during the import-substitution industrialization and post-1991 liberalization and privatization periods, and the adequacy of the current policy environment. Despite diminished productivity and export competitiveness during import-substitution industrialization, that era was successful in terms of domestic manufacture of mining goods. Privatization and liberalization stymied local content capabilities, retarding industrialization and economic diversification. Post-2000 policies emphasize local content development and export competitiveness. Their success, however, depends on addressing continuing weaknesses in the regulatory environment; human and technological capital; endogenous entrepreneurship; and the macroeconomic environment.
Introduction
Authors: Mohamed Feisal G.
Published: March 2020

A modern politics attaching itself to the state must adopt a position sovereignty, by which is meant the political settlement in which potestas and auctoritas are aligned. Three competing forms are identified: unitary sovereignty, divided and balanced sovereignty, and the view that sovereign power must be limited by universal principles. Each of these forms can be divided into “red” and “black” varieties, depending on the imagined relationship between sovereign power and modern conditions of flux. A chapter outline introduces the figures who will be explored in the book as a whole: Thomas Hobbes; William Fiennes, Lord Saye and Sele; John Barclay and the romance writers of the 1650s whom he influences; John Milton; and Andrew Marvell. Also described is the book’s sustained engagement of Carl Schmitt, and the ways in which his thought on sovereignty is an example of the competition amongst the concept’s three competing forms.
Provincializing Romance
Authors: Mohamed Feisal G.
Published: March 2020

This chapter begins with Coke’s and Selden’s speeches on liberty of person in the wake of the Five Knights’ Case (1627). Here civil law and supra-legal principles, or the national and the universal, converge, in a way running parallel to the period’s engagements of the romance tradition, which historically claims common cultural ground for Western Christendom but becomes dominated in the seventeenth century by narrower concerns. This shift is visible in John Barclay’s Argenis, effecting an unlikely marriage of romance and raison d’état. That proves to be an influential model in the prose romances of the 1650s—considered most closely are Theophania and Sir Percy Herbert’s Cloria and Narcissus. In a way recalling Arendt’s remarks on nomos, likely a response to Schmitt, these romances of the 1650s solidify the social ties of a disempowered elite while displaying a unique and fleeting posture of openness on the question of sovereignty.
Marvell’s Dread of the Sword
Authors: Mohamed Feisal G.
Published: March 2020

For Marvell sovereignty names the brutal core of political order, where a single ruler, or body of rulers, decides on the state of exception. This recognition is visible in the early, middle, and late stages of his career, from The  Picture of Little T.C. and the Villiers elegy, to the Protectorate poems, to the Advice to a Painter poems and An  Account of the Growth of Popery. The last of these is illumined by consideration of the case of Shirley v. Fagg (1675); for all that Marvell aligned himself with Shaftesbury, they take different views of the case reflecting their different views of constitutional order. In his mature thought especially, we see Marvell’s impulse to advance the legal rights of the subject and so limit the damage that can be done by the sovereign wielding the power of the sword. This impulse is brought into conversation with Schmitt’s thought on the nature of the pluralist state, which he offers through a critique of Harold Laksi.
Epilogue
Authors: Mohamed Feisal G.
Published: March 2020

In The Concept of the Political, Schmitt identifies Hobbes as the theorist of the protection–obedience axiom par excellence. That identification informs his later critique in The Leviathan in the State Theory of Thomas Hobbes, which seems to break with Hobbes in part because his formulation of protection and obedience fails to account for the possibility of the sovereign’s betrayal of a loyal subject. But we do see Hobbes hint at this recognition through the story of Uzzah, which he mentions in both Leviathan and Behemoth. His reading of the would-be rescuer of the Ark who is struck down by God is placed alongside others in the period, notably those of Richard Hooker, Lancelot Andrewes, and John Donne. For Hobbes, as with Schmitt, personal experience reveals hard lessons on the ways in which obedience is not always repaid with protection.
“After all, anybody is as their land and air is … ”
Authors: Pecora Vincent P.
Published: March 2020

Both Robert Frost and Gertrude Stein confront the need for belonging with a certain American ambivalence, one that can also be found in the novelistic tradition, but their complicated attitudes toward the land of their birth puts the English attitude that we find in George Eliot in sharp relief. The English novel after George Eliot turns increasingly to what has been called questions of agro-romantic values. The chapter looks specifically at such values in Thomas Hardy (Tess of the d’Urbervilles); Joseph Conrad (Lord Jim); D. H. Lawrence (The Rainbow and The Plumed Serpent); E. M. Forster (Howards End and A Passage to India); and Virginia Woolf (To the Lighthouse and Between the Acts).
A Different Passage to India
Authors: Pecora Vincent P.
Published: March 2020

Ashis Nandy, an Indian psychologist and cultural critic of the post-1945 era, has spent his career largely re-imagining “Indic civilization” as a Gandhi-inspired rejection of Western civilization and especially Western modernity. Very much like Brunner in his rewriting of German civilization, Nandy returns us to pre-nation-state Indian literary and religious texts, the interpretation of which he reconstructs in order to rescue the texts from modern revisionism that has been shaped by the “muscular Christianity” of the Raj. Further, Nandy understands Indic culture, reaching from Afghanistan to Vietnam, as a diversified yet unified entity, comprising a host of territories within one, supra-national civilization. In this sense, Nandy’s work echoes that of Brunner on the authentic, pre-nation-state German Reich, complete with its array of Volksgemeinschaften. But Nandy’s thinking is also reflected in the modern Hindutva movement of present-day India.
Getting Rights out of Wrongs
Authors: Brownlee Kimberley
Published: March 2020

Sometimes, we can gain new moral rights by acting wrongly. Sometimes, we can gain new moral rights (in addition to restitution rights) from other people acting wrongly. This chapter presents a typology of these rights. It then analyses why some wrongs can change the moral ballgame in this way to give us new rights, and other wrongs cannot. The chapter focuses on three factors that are relevant to moral ballgame-changing cases: (1) legitimate expectations; (2) personal investments; and (3) piggybacking on others’ interests. Finally, the chapter examines two ultimately unsuccessful strategies to resist this analysis of wrong-generated rights. The first strategy pertains to the defeasibility of rights. The second strategy pertains to their conditionality.
Free Speech and the Embodied Self
Authors: Pallikkathayil Japa
Published: March 2020

Democratic theories of free speech hold that the right to free speech is grounded in the nature of collective self-governance. The legitimacy of imposing laws on those who disagree with them depends on giving all citizens an equal right to participate in the lawmaking process, including the right to express their opposition. Ronald Dworkin argues that views of this kind are in tension with hate speech regulation. If we forbid the expression of prejudice, we undermine the legitimacy of laws protecting minority groups. The aim in this chapter is to diffuse the tension Dworkin sees between a democratic justification of the right to free speech and hate speech regulation. This is done by developing an account of how our bodily rights constrain the right to free speech.
Global Equality and Open Borders
Authors: Holtug Nils
Published: March 2020

Egalitarians disagree about the extent to which states should have open borders. Sometimes, this disagreement is due to a deeper disagreement about the scope of egalitarian justice. Egalitarians holding that equality has domestic scope only may be inclined to favor restrictive immigration policies to protect the welfare state. Egalitarians holding that equality has global scope, on the other hand, may be inclined to support more open borders in order to reduce global inequality. This chapter argues that equality has global scope and then considers the implications of global egalitarianism for the issue of open borders. Furthermore, the chapter provides an argument for why (more) open borders can be expected reduce global inequality. Then some objections to this argument are considered, based on brain drain, threats to welfare states, and in-group bias. Finally, the chapter considers the suggestion that (more) open borders is not the best (or most efficient) way of reducing global inequality.
From abundance to land scarcity
Authors: Toulmin Camilla
Published: March 2020

How could the village of Dlonguébougou (DBG), which boasted abundant land in 1980, find itself land scarce just 25 years later? The answer lies in part with a tripling of the village population, the widespread use of oxen-drawn plough teams, and continued extensive patterns of farming. But, by far, the largest factor has been the arrival of many hundred incoming farmers from farther south, seeking land. Aerial photos and satellite images show the first wave in the late 1980s, from villages badly affected by bird damage to cereal crops, given their proximity to the irrigated lands of the Office du Niger, and the second wave unleashed by the establishment of N-Sukala, a sugar cane plantation 40 km to the southeast of DBG. Hundreds of families have lost their farmland to this irrigation scheme, and have migrated to seek land in neighbouring villages like DBG, putting further pressure on land.
People and domestic organization
Authors: Toulmin Camilla
Published: March 2020

In Dlonguébougou (DBG), rapid demographic growth has led to a tripling of the village population, but demographic performance remains uneven between households and couples. DBG demonstrates the persistence of domestic groups, of more than thirty people, far larger than comparable households elsewhere in West Africa. Working as a farming group, a residential unit, and an economic enterprise permitting livelihood diversification, these households also generate children and descendants. Institutions are key to managing risks in an uncertain setting. Larger groups find it easier to gather the capital to invest in key assets; they face less risk from failure to reproduce; and there is greater space for individual income earning. In this patriarchal society, women and girls travel well-worn marriage pathways between households and villages. Despite the advantages of large size, households fragment because of conflicts over assets or women, or following the death of the household head.
Leaving the village on migration
Authors: Toulmin Camilla
Published: March 2020

The Sahel has been a region of movement for millennia, as people cope with drought, search for better land, and seek out new economic opportunities. People move from rural to urban areas and from Mali to elsewhere in West Africa. For the people of Dlonguébougou (DBG), migration has become much more significant since 1980. Increasing numbers of people have left the village permanently, and their children will be urban dwellers. As described through interviews, both men and women want to spend some time away from the village, exploring the world and earning some cash. Becoming a long-term migrant is not usually a one-off choice, but a process over time, which leads one to stay away. Migrant earnings are key to purchase of assets and buying personal goods such as a motorbike, clothes, and mobile phones. For some, they say they see no future in bush villages like DBG.
Facing an uncertain future
Authors: Toulmin Camilla
Published: March 2020

This concluding chapter considers the future facing the people of Dlonguébougou and the wider region, given current forces at play and future scenarios. High levels of risk and uncertainty persist for rainfall, governance, demographic growth, and conflict. Today, insecurity spans Mali and the wider Sahel because of multiple entangled grievances, jihadist groups, youth unemployment, and centralization of power in capital cities. Reliance on military power will not win the day. From the Sahel being considered a geopolitical backwater, European countries are now focused on ways to stabilize the region, as it has become a source of migrants and instability. Pressures on land will continue with government neglect of dryland farming and further large-scale land allocations made for irrigated agriculture. Increased individualism and consumerism apparent at the village and the national level have damaged collective responses to the current crisis. The promise of the new land tenure law may not be achieved, and donor aid further shores up unaccountable and corrupt government.
The Rules of the Flock
Authors: Satz Helmut
Published: March 2020

Flocks of birds, schools of fish and swarms of locusts display amazing forms of collective motion, while huge numbers of glow worms can emit light signals with almost unbelievable synchronization. These and many other collective phenomena in animal societies take place according to laws very similar to those governing the collective behavior in inanimate nature, such as the magnetization of iron and light radiation of lasers. During recent years, this has led to the study of swarm behavior as a challenging new field of science, in which ideas from the physical world are applied in order to understand the formation and structure of animal swarms. It has thus become clear that the collective behavior of animal swarms emerges in a self-organized way, without the need of any overall director. In this book, different swarm phenomena of the animal world are presented and compared with their counterparts in physics, in a conceptual and non-technical way, addressed to a general readership.
The Eighth Plague
Authors: Satz Helmut
Published: March 2020

Locust swarms, with billions of individuals, have threatened human food production at all times. Locusts are initially solitary animals; if the lack of food forces them together, they develop a serotonin hormone and as a result become gregarious and form swarms. Experiments have shown that the transition from the solitary to the gregarious phase occurs at a density of about 75 locusts per square meter.
The Birds of Rome
Authors: Satz Helmut
Published: March 2020

With the help of high speed stereographic cameras and a computer analysis of the results, a team from the University of Rome provided first precision data of large starling flocks. They determined shape and correlation of the flocks as well as the local internal coordination between birds. The overall global patterns were thus shown to be the result of local interactions between six to seven nearest neighbors.
The Rules of the Flock
Authors: Satz Helmut
Published: March 2020

Following the seminal work of T. Vicsek et al. (Budapest), mathematical models are formulated, based on next neighbor interactions (alignment of flight direction) leading to global correlations. Computer simulations of these models lead to behavior patterns very much like those observed in empirical studies of bird flocks. In particular, a transition from random motion to flock behavior is observed for sufficiently precise flight alignment, corresponding to sufficiently low temperature in spin systems.
Fiery Clouds in the Jungle
Authors: Satz Helmut
Published: March 2020

The bioluminescence of Malaysian fireflies shows extremely precise synchronization, implying that each animal possesses an intrinsic timing device allowing synchronization of all animals in the swarm. A similar effect leads to the synchronization of coupled metronomes.
Coupled Oscillators
Authors: Satz Helmut
Published: March 2020

Pendulums on a common basis become eventually synchronized, through transmission of swing frequency. Coupled electric oscillators show the same effect. The application of this effect to synchronized behaviour of insect swarms provided the crucial mechanism for the understanding of coherent light and sound emission by fireflies and crickets.
How to Fly
Authors: Satz Helmut
Published: March 2020

Energy expenditure of flight can be reduced by flight formation (echelon, V-shape). Birds make use of this, as well as of upwash/downwash effects due to wing motion. Flight details were studied empirically by human-led migrations of the Northern bald ibis. The human leaders flew in light glider devices, the birds carried light GPS recorders on their backs.
Avian Aerodynamics
Authors: Satz Helmut
Published: March 2020

A bird in flight experiences four forces: wing flapping brings a forward thrust and an upward lift, while air resistance creates a drag and the weight of the bird a downward pull. In addition, the flow of air over the wings creates an upward pressure. A third source of motion arises from a coordination of wing flapping between adjacent birds, as discussed in the previous chapter.
The Ant State
Authors: Satz Helmut
Published: March 2020

The ant state forms a superorganism, in which the members fulfill specific complementary functions. Thus there is a queen to give rise to young, female workers and from time to time male drones. Ant states carry out various collective activities—hunting forays, agriculture in form of leaf cutting, stock farming in form of raising plant lice to obtain honeydew.
Of Bees and Flowers
Authors: Satz Helmut
Published: March 2020

Between bees and flowers there exists a mutualistic interaction, requiring cooperation between partners to assure the survival of both.
A Path to a New Logic
Authors: Corfield David
Published: March 2020

This chapter explains how modal homotopy type theory combines ideas from two currents of thought: type theory and category theory. Despite what might appear to be rather different philosophical starting points, there has emerged an intrinsically structuralist language of great interest to computer scientists, mathematicians and physicists. This in itself should be enough to interest philosophers in the language, but further motivation is provided by addressing some of the kinds of objection raised to formalization in philosophy; in particular, those from ordinary language philosophy which emphasize the elasticity and context-dependence of natural language. We see that several of their concerns, such as that the definitional and descriptive uses of ‘is’ are conflated in logic, are addressed by the type theory. The prospect is then presented of an opportunity to use the new language to explore key issues in philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of language and metaphysics.
Dependent Types
Authors: Corfield David
Published: March 2020

Type theory regards individuals as belonging to a specific type. In computer science type-checking measures ensure that a program will compute properly. We see typing in everyday speech too, when a ‘Who?’ question expects a person. To define a type, it is necessary to specify when two elements are equal. Such concerns with sorts and identity are at stake in metaphysics. A dependent type occurs where one type is parametrized by elements of another. The two related constructions of dependent sum and dependent product appear in natural language and modern mathematics. In logic, these constructions amount to the quantifiers central to Russell’s logic. Dependent types are formulated in terms of contexts constructed in an order, showing how some concepts presuppose others. There are strong resonances with the ideas of Collingwood. With the notion of dependency, we can now analyse event types properly, demonstrating their difference from object types.
Homotopy Types
Authors: Corfield David
Published: March 2020

A further innovation is the introduction of an intensional type theory. Here one need not reduce equivalence to mere identity. How two entities are the same tells us more than whether they are the same. This is explained by the homotopical aspect of HoTT, where types are taken to resemble spaces of points, paths, paths between paths, and so on. This allows us to rethink Russell’s definite descriptions. Mathematicians use a ‘generalized the’ in situations where it appears that they might be talking about a multiplicity of instances, but there is essentially a unique instance. Taken together with the ‘univalence axiom’ there results a language in which anything that can be said of a type can be said of an equivalent type. This allows homotopy type theory to become the language of choice for a structuralist, avoiding the need for any kind of abstraction away from multiple instantiations.
Modal Types
Authors: Corfield David
Published: March 2020

Modal logic flourished throughout the twentieth century. Kripke provided a semantics in terms of possible world recognized by mathematicians to be an example of varying sets. This allows a formulation in terms of monads generated by adjunctions. Modal homotopy type theory adds the radical idea that modalities apply to all types, not just propositions, so as to make sense of possible steps and necessary ingredients. The proximity is shown between the structures discovered by modal logicians and common ideas in mathematics of stability under variation. We can then reformulate many ideas in current philosophical metaphysical uses of modal logic, such as rigid designators, counterparts, the de re/de dicto distinction, and so on. Worlds are understood as extended contexts, allowing a formulation of counterfactuals. A form of temporal logic is also easily generated in the same vein.
Spatial Types
Authors: Corfield David
Published: March 2020

While modalities relate directly to the philosophical concerns of metaphysicians, it has been recognized recently by mathematicians that operators behaving similarly can be deployed to capture spatial concepts synthetically. Drawing on the important ideas of Lawvere on cohesion, it can be shown that a collection of entities behaves as spaces merely by partaking in an interlocking series of maps to and from some base collection. In simplest terms, the points of a space are held together cohesively. Combining the spatial modalities with the refined notion of identity is just what is needed in current fields of mathematical geometry and topology. While standard set-theoretic foundations have brought with them a decline of philosophical interest in what constitutes the geometric, versions of geometry in mathematics have burgeoned. Now we can use cohesive HoTT to revive the philosophy of geometry and say what is distinctive about our conceptions of space.
Conclusion
Authors: Corfield David
Published: March 2020

An appraisal is given of the achievements of modal homotopy type theory as described through the earlier chapters, and of the future prospects of this new logic. This is carried out in terms of the constraints exerted on its users by the formalism, and of the expressive freedom it allows. In particular, the power of combining the component parts – types, dependency, homotopy, modality – is emphasised.
Cat’s Cradle
Authors: Predelli Stefano
Published: March 2020

This chapter extends the Radical Fictionalist take on peripheries and storyworlds with an introduction to the idea of peripheral importation, paying particular attention to the peripheral importation of actual semantic regularities. The chapter continues with a discussion of the repercussion of Radical Fictionalism for fictional co-reference and translation, with a focus on reported speech and on the translation of fictional proper names. At the end of the chapter, one starred section is devoted to so-called real names in fiction, with a negotiable commitment to the importation of the (presumed) actual metaphysical properties of words. A second starred section is concerned with the idea of fictional languages, as in Burgess’ Nadsat or Vonnegut’s Bokoninish.
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Authors: Predelli Stefano
Published: March 2020

Chapter 8 continues with a different aspect of critical discourse, namely its apparent commitment to so-called literary characters. The main aim of this chapter is to highlight the compatibility of Radical Fictionalism with a tolerant attitude towards character-talk, and with an analysis of character-names as fully-fledged proper names. Accordingly, this chapter discusses the sense of ‘character’ relevant from the Radical Fictionalist viewpoint, and it distinguishes it from the understanding of that term dominant in the current debate on fictional realism. The chapter continues with a negotiable hypothesis about character-names as actually referring expressions, and it puts forth a pre-semantic hypothesis about the launch of character-names and about their relationships with fictional names.
Conclusion
Authors: Predelli Stefano
Published: March 2020

This conclusion wraps up the discussion of Radical Fictionalism with a brief summary of the ideas discussed throughout the book. It rehearses the main tenets of Radical Fictionalism and their consequences for fictional discourse, such as the distinction between homodiegetic and heterodiegetic narratives, the fictional divide between storyworlds and peripheries, and the Radical Fictionalist takes on prefixed discourse. It continues with a summary of the consequences of Radical Fictionalism for a variety of themes from narrative fiction, such as inconsistency, unreliability, importation, nesting, and the different modes of critical discourse. This conclusion ends with a brief allusion to certain independently open semantic and philosophical issues.
Estimating Illicit Financial Flows
Authors: Cobham Alex , Janský Petr
Published: March 2020

Illicit financial flows constitute a global phenomenon of massive but uncertain scale, which erodes government revenues and drives corruption in countries rich and poor. In 2015, the countries of the world committed to a target to reduce illicit flows, as part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. But five years later, there is still no agreement on how that target should be monitored—to say nothing of how it will be achieved. The term ‘illicit financial flows’ covers a range of corrupt practices, aimed at obtaining immunity or impunity from criminal law, from market regulation and from taxation. Illicit flows occur through many different channels, whether they involve laundering the proceeds of crime, for example, or shifting the profits of multinational companies. There are two consistent features. First, illicit flows are deliberately hidden. These cross-border movements of assets and income streams depend on a set of common tools including opaque company accounts, legal vehicles for anonymous ownership, and the secrecy jurisdictions that provide these services. Second, the overall effect of illicit flows is to reduce the revenue available to states, and to weaken the quality of governance—so there is less money to support human development, and it is less likely to be spent well. In this book, two of the economists most closely involved in the process to develop UN indicators of illicit financial flows offer a critical survey of the existing data and methodologies, identifying the most promising avenues for future improvement and setting out their own proposals.
Conclusion
Authors: Cobham Alex , Janský Petr
Published: March 2020

This book asks: Which flows fall under the umbrella term, ‘illicit financial flows’ (IFF)? How will progress in reducing them be measured? How will that progress be achieved? And who is ultimately accountable? In this closing chapter, we summarise the findings of the volume on these questions, including in respect of the quality of existing estimates, their methodology and data and the likely scope for progress; and on the potential for scale and non-scale indicators of illicit financial flows for global targets, including the Sustainable Development Goals, and for national policy prioritisation. With political progress on the SDG target likely to be difficult, we also identify other opportunities to move the IFF agenda forward in the UN context.
Max Perutz, John Kendrew, Peterhouse, and the Davy-Faraday Research Laboratory
Authors: Meurig Thomas John
Published: March 2020

The accidental way in which Perutz and Kendrew met and the influence of the brilliant, versatile physicist J. D. Bernal upon them and on the third Nobel Laureate chemist Dorothy Hodgkin are described. Perutz and Kendrew, each a member of Peterhouse (a Cambridge College), were also guided by W. L. Bragg of the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, and later at the Davy-Faraday Research Laboratory, London where, in 1953, they became visiting scientists and adept in the popularization of science. The founding of the new subject of molecular biology and the objection to it by some biologists are outlined. The joint efforts of Perutz and Kendrew in establishing two new major research centres—the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg—is outlined. A brief trajectory of their initial work on haemoglobin is also given.
The Birth and Initial Exploitation of X-ray Diffraction
Authors: Meurig Thomas John
Published: March 2020

A non-mathematical account of the discovery of X-ray diffraction by von Laue and its use as a new kind of high-resolution microscopy by W. L. Bragg is given. There follows a simple explanation of how the electron densities in various regions of any molecule that can be crystallized can be retrieved from its X-ray diffraction pattern. Also, it is explained how the molecular weight of the molecule can be determined from straightforward measurements of the diffraction and the density of the crystal. The identity of the elements in a crystal, as well as the nature of the chemical bonding between them, may also be derived from measurement of the electron density distribution within it. The importance of Bragg’s Law, relating X-ray pattern to interatomic distance, is demonstrated, and initial applications of it by Bragg and Pauling are given.
W. H. Bragg and His Creation of a World-Famous Centre for X-ray Crystallography at the Davy-Faraday Research Laboratory
Authors: Meurig Thomas John
Published: March 2020

The nature and mode of operation of the Davy-Faraday Research Laboratory (DFRL) and the Royal Institution (RI), within which it is located, are described. Together, they are part laboratory, part library, and part theatre where topics of scientific and cultural interest are presented to the general public, including children. W. H. Bragg, for two decades, from 1923 onwards, made it one of the world’s foremost research centres for the use of X-ray to study molecules of biological and other interest. His associates, especially Astbury, Bernal, and Kathleen Yardley (later Dame Kathleen Lonsdale), and others made major advances in elucidating the nature of a variety of the constituents of living matter, including hair, fingernails, horns, and other examples of proteins. This chapter contains a guide to the nature of proteinaceous and other examples of living matter and serves as an introduction to the total beginner in the study of structural biology and its importance.
Perutz and Kendrew: The Heroic Era of Structural Molecular Biology
Authors: Meurig Thomas John
Published: March 2020

When Perutz and Kendrew embarked on their determination of the structures of haemoglobin and myoglobin, most scientists felt that they would never succeed. These molecules contain approximately thousands of non-hydrogen atoms, whereas those molecules that had yielded to X-ray analysis previously contained fewer than a hundred non-hydrogen atoms. For real progress to be made in solving the structures of the giant proteins, a fundamentally new approach had to be evolved, which inter alia required massive computer power to handle the data contained in hundreds of thousands of X-ray diffraction patterns, and new experimental equipment like ultra-stable X-ray sources were required to record the diffraction data. The first successes were registered by Kendrew, who was able to reveal, in unprecedented detail, the atomically resolved structure of myoglobin with its haem group (containing a central iron atom) and all the details of the amino acid residues that constituted the backbone chain of the protein. Likewise, haemoglobin revealed its secrets. This also led to the discovery of sickle-cell anaemia, the first ever recorded molecular disease. It also shed new light on the pathology of anomalous haemoglobins in human populations.
Sir Lawrence Bragg at the RI (1953–1966) and the Determination of the First Three-Dimensional Structure of an Enzyme at the DFRL (1965)
Authors: Meurig Thomas John
Published: March 2020

The transformation in the affairs of the Royal Institution (RI) and the Davy-Faraday Research Laboratory (DFRL) when W. L. Bragg became the new Director there in 1953 is described. He resuscitated the moribund research efforts and injected fresh impetus into the lecture programmes mounted by the RI. In particular, he recruited a powerful team of protein crystallographers (notably D. C. Phillips, A. C. T. North, R. Poljak, Louise Johnson, and C. C. Blake), as well as strong technical backup from instrumental experts like U. Arndt. In the space of a dozen years, this team of co-workers solved the first ever structure of an enzyme, known as lysozyme, which had been discovered by Alexander Fleming in the 1920s. This was a major breakthrough, and it stimulated similar work elsewhere. The chapter also discusses what has happened to the DFRL subsequently. It is now in abeyance, and the reasons for this situation are outlined.