Commentary on 'a Reflexive Account of Reusing Qualitative Data: Beyond Primary/secondary Dualism' (Libby Bishop)

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Seduced or Sceptical Consumers? Organised Action and the Case of Fair Trade Coffee

This article brings together research on political consumerism, social movements and markets to analyse the phenomenon of fair trade coffee. It does this to demonstrate the influence of organised consumers in shaping markets, and to show that people are not inevitably individualised and seduced by the power of corporate marketing. The case of fair trade coffee is used because of the pivotal role of coffee in the global economy. \'Organised consumers\' are treated as comprised of three inter-connecting, fluid, components: an activist core, responsible for building the campaign and its alternative trade networks; a widely dispersed alliance of civil society and social movement organisations, articulating the connections between trade justice, human rights and wellbeing; and an \'outer edge\' of quasi-organised consumers acting as part of a largely imagined group by using economic capital to express cultural and political values. Despite saturated markets, and oligopoly among suppliers in a highly rationalised supply chain, such consumer movements have been instrumental in an emerging new trade paradigm, which has influenced the business and product strategies of trans-national corporations. The creation, and rising sales, of Fair Trade products are evidence of the role of consumers as sceptical actors, challenging consumerism and the ethics of a supply chain which impoverishes coffee farmers. Although the future trajectories of fair trade campaigns and products are uncertain, their growth indicates that people continue to draw on sources of social identity beyond that of \'consumer\'.Consumption, Consumers, Fair Trade, Coffee, Social Movement Organisations

Epistemology, Structure and Urgency: the Sociology of Financial and Scientific Journalists

This paper, which examines the work of journalists in one field, argues for the value of including journalists\' own understandings and practices in analyses of the role of the media. Moreover it suggests that, in this field, there may be more commonalities between the practices of journalism and social science than is commonly supposed. The paper is based upon a set of interviews with scientific and financial journalists, covering their interpretations of nanotechnologies and their development. Whereas much of the social scientific work to date in this area has been concerned with the public understanding of science, and the role that journalism plays in relation to this, our study addresses the parallel issue of how, in a field characterised by high levels of commercialisation, potential investors get information and make judgments about particular applications, and the extent to which journalism plays a key role in this process. Here, we focus not primarily on the ways in which the media frame understandings of a complex technology, important though they may be, but on the practical epistemological strategies that journalists employ to make sense of it. We argue that journalists can be seen to be engaged in epistemological strategies that are analogous to those of sociologists, and that this dimension is too easily missed by approaches that, for example, recommend that the correct unit of analysis should always be journalism rather than journalists. We conclude by suggesting that, whilst the general applicability of our argument to other fields of journalism is necessarily an empirical question, our approach may have more general significance for debates about the critical role of social science.Epistemology, Fields, Financial Understanding of Science, Nanotechnology, Sociology of Journalists, Scepticism, STS

Changing Social Class Identities in Post-War Britain: Perspectives from Mass-Observation

The idea that class identities have waned in importance over recent decades is a staple feature of much contemporary social theory yet has not been systematically investigated using primary historical data. This paper re-uses qualitative data collected by Mass-Observation which asks about the social class identities of correspondents of its directives in two different points in time, 1948 and 1990. I show that there were significant changes in the way that class was narrated in these two periods. There is not simple decline of class identities, but rather a subtle reworking of the means by which class is articulated. In the earlier period Mass-Observers are ambivalent about class in ways which indicate the power of class as a form of ascriptive inscription. By 1990, Mass-Observers do not see class identities as the ascribed product of their birth and upbringing, but rather they elaborate a reflexive and individualised account of their mobility between class positions in ways which emphasise the continued importance of class identities. As well as being a contribution to debates on changing class identities, the paper highlights the value of the re-use of qualitative data as a means of examining patterns and processes of historical changeQualitative Data, Social Class, Identities

What's [Yet] to Be Seen? Re-Using Qualitative Data

This paper considers current debates about re-using qualitative research data by reflecting on its implications for the nature of social science knowledge created in this process and the ways in which the disclosure of researchers\' practices are linked with the making of professional academic careers. It examines a research project using two different approaches – a \'virtual\' and a \'classic\' ethnography – to argue that issues concerned with re-use of data depend on the methods employed and the overall processes of investigation. The paper argues for an appreciation of the contexts involved in the generation of research material which takes into account both the development of the study and related fieldwork processes as well as the academic context in which knowledge is produced, particularly those involved in the construction of academic selves and professional careers, which are part of a wider situation bearing upon scientific enquiry.Secondary Data Analysis, Ethnography, Visual Methodology, Academic Careers

'Re-Using' Qualitative Data: on the Merits of an Investigative Epistemology

This article is written to accompany and respond to the articles that form the special issue of Sociological Research Online on \'Re-using qualitative data\'. It argues that the articles are a welcome contribution, because they help to move the debate beyond moralistic and polarised positions, to demonstrate instead with what sociologists can achieve by \'re-using\' qualitative data. The article argues for an investigative epistemology and investigative practices to guide qualitative data use and \'re-use\', and suggests that this is particularly important in the current social research climate.Qualitative Research / Re-Using Qualitative Data / Secondary Analysis / Investigative Epistemology

An Analysis of the Insertion of Virtual Players in GMABS Methodology Using the Vip-JogoMan Prototype

The GMABS (Games and Multi-Agent-Based Simulation) methodology was created from the integration of RPG and MABS techniques. This methodology links the dynamic capacity of MABS (Multi-Agent-Based Simulation) and the discussion and learning capacity of RPG (Role-Playing Games). Using GMABS, we have developed two prototypes in the natural resources management domain. The first prototype, called JogoMan (Adamatti et. al, 2005), is a paper-based game: all players need to be physically present in the same place and time, and there is a minimum needed number of participants to play the game. In order to avoid this constraint, we have built a second prototype, called ViP-JogoMan (Adamatti et. al, 2007), which is an extension of the first one. This second game enables the insertion of virtual players that can substitute some real players in the game. These virtual players can partially mime real behaviors and capture autonomy, social abilities, reaction and adaptation of the real players. We have chosen the BDI architecture to model these virtual players, since its paradigm is based on folk psychology; hence, its core concepts easily map the language that people use to describe their reasoning and actions in everyday life. ViP-JogoMan is a computer-based game, in which people play via Web, players can be in different places and it does not have a hard constraint regarding the minimum number of real players. Our aim in this paper is to present some test results obtained with both prototypes, as well as to present a preliminary discussion on how the insertion of virtual players has affected the game results.Role-Playing Games, Multi-Agent Based Simulation, Natural Resources, Virtual Players

Income Distribution Effects of a Finnish Work Incentive Trap Reform

The present study concentrates on the income distribution effects of A Finnish Work Incentive Trap Reform started in 1996. I estimate how the reforms made have affected income levels and income inequality - the distribution of economic wellbeing. I look at the effects both without and with behavioral response. The data used is the Income Distribution Statistics of Statistics Finland from the years 1996 and 1998. The empirical part of the study is based on a microsimulation model. The method of microsimulation is a powerful tool for the analysis of ex post evaluation of policy reforms. However, the method is rarely and on very few occasions applied in Finland. The results drawn without behavioral response show that the 1996 data with the 1998 legislation produces lower values for income inequality measures and higher average income levels for almost all income decile groups compared to those with the 1996 legislation. However, the changes are very small. When the labor supply effect is included, the lowest incomes rise only very little (in fact, hardly at all) and the Gini coefficient remains unaltered.Work Incentive Trap Reforms, Microsimulation, Disposable Income, Economic Well-Being, Inequality, Poverty

Effects of a Trust Mechanism on Complex Adaptive Supply Networks: An Agent-Based Social Simulation Study

This paper models a supply network as a complex adaptive system (CAS), in which firms or agents interact with one another and adapt themselves. And it applies agent-based social simulation (ABSS), a research method of simulating social systems under the CAS paradigm, to observe emergent outcomes. The main purposes of this paper are to consider a social factor, trust, in modeling the agents\' behavioral decision-makings and, through the simulation studies, to examine the intermediate self-organizing processes and the resulting macro-level system behaviors. The simulations results reveal symmetrical trust levels between two trading agents, based on which the degree of trust relationship in each pair of trading agents as well as the resulting collaboration patterns in the entire supply network emerge. Also, it is shown that agents\' decision-making behavior based on the trust relationship can contribute to the reduction in the variability of inventory levels. This result can be explained by the fact that mutual trust relationship based on the past experiences of trading diminishes an agent\'s uncertainties about the trustworthiness of its trading partners and thereby tends to stabilize its inventory levels.Complex Adaptive System, Agent-Based Social Simulation, Supply Network, Trust