The ‘Autonomous Nationalists’: new developments and contradictions in the German neo-Nazi movement

This article examines the action repertoires, symbolism and political ideology of the ‘Autonomous Nationalists’ (Autonome Nationalisten in German) that have emerged as a sub-cultural youth trend within the German extreme right. Agitating within a landscape of networked, extra-parliamentary neo-Nazi organisations, Autonomous Nationalist activism forms a specific subsection within the German extreme right that copies the styles, codes and militancy of anarchist and radical left activists. A political analysis of its texts and slogans reveals a self- definition as ‘anti-capitalist’ and ‘national socialist’. A particular mobilisation potential beyond the traditional and party-political forms of extreme nationalism is fuelled by an openly displayed confrontational militancy, mostly directed at anti-fascist and left-wing groups and individuals, and by strong counter-cultural aspects. The article analyses how this emphasis on individual forms of expressions and rebellion appears to stand in contradiction with fascist understandings of organisation and has put the movement at odds with the established neo-Nazi scene in Germany

The illusion of choice: the European Union and the trade-labour linkage

Why has the European Union refrained from pushing for economic sanctions in the promotion of labor standards? In this paper we argue that a cost-effectiveness approach is not fully capable to grasp this decision. The effectiveness of the different instruments the EU has at its disposal are constrained by the internal and external context where decisions on labor-standards have been taken. The internal context suggests that what we observe is the emanation of the ‘lowest common denominator’ on which a consensus could be found, i.e. the normative underpinnings on which all member states can agree. Alternatively, the EU’s decisions are shaped by the perceptions that negotiating partners hold on the motivations behind such decisions. In this paper, we focus mostly on the discussions held at the multilateral level

The case against the democratic influence of the internet on journalism

Book synopsis: Web Journalism: A New Form of Citizenship provides a much-needed analytical account of the implications of interactive participation in the construction of media content. Although web journalism is a fast-changing technology this book will have sustained appeal to an international readership by seeking to critically assess Internet news production. … With the rise of blogging and citizen journalism, it is a commonplace to observe that interactive participatory media are transforming the relationship between the traditional professional media and their audience. A current, popular, assumption is that the traditional flow of information from media to citizen is being reformed into a democratic dialogue between members of a community. The editors and contributors analyse and debate this assumption through international case studies that include the United Kingdom and United States. … While the text has been written and designed for undergraduate and postgraduate use, Web Journalism: A New Form of Citizenship? will be of use and of interest to all those engaged in the debate over Web reporting and citizen journalism

Post-Enron implicit audit reporting standards: sifting through the evidence.

The accounting scandals and the demise of Andersen have increased auditors' ex ante business risk. As a result, stock markets revised downward the value of the audit firms (Asthana et al. 2003; Chaney and Philipich 2002; Krishnamurthy et al. 2002; Callen and Morel 2002). One commonsensical reaction on behalf of auditors should have been to apply the existing rules more carefully and, thus, issue more non-clean audit opinions. This is exactly what we see. Closer scrutiny reveals that the higher incidence of non-clean audit opinions is not due to the (substantial) changes in the audit client list or their balance sheets. Instead, shifts in the client characteristics seem to have masked the Enron effect, and especially so in the non-Big5 sample. This study mirrors earlier results where auditors relaxed their standards following a drop in business risk (Geiger and Raghunandan, 2001, 2002; Francis and Krishnan, 2002).Andersen; Auditor reporting; Enron; Modified opinion; Qualified opinion; Reporting; Research;

Powellsnakes II: a fast Bayesian approach to discrete object detection in multi-frequency astronomical data sets

Powellsnakes is a Bayesian algorithm for detecting compact objects embedded in a diffuse background, and was selected and successfully employed by the Planck consortium in the production of its first public deliverable: the Early Release Compact Source Catalogue (ERCSC). We present the critical foundations and main directions of further development of PwS, which extend it in terms of formal correctness and the optimal use of all the available information in a consistent unified framework, where no distinction is made between point sources (unresolved objects), SZ clusters, single or multi-channel detection. An emphasis is placed on the necessity of a multi-frequency, multi-model detection algorithm in order to achieve optimality

Applications of Bayesian model selection to cosmological parameters

Bayesian model selection is a tool to decide whether the introduction of a new parameter is warranted by data. I argue that the usual sampling statistic significance tests for a null hypothesis can be misleading, since they do not take into account the information gained through the data, when updating the prior distribution to the posterior. On the contrary, Bayesian model selection offers a quantitative implementation of Occam's razor. I introduce the Savage-Dickey density ratio, a computationally quick method to determine the Bayes factor of two nested models and hence perform model selection. As an illustration, I consider three key parameters for our understanding of the cosmological concordance model. By using WMAP 3-year data complemented by other cosmological measurements, I show that a non-scale invariant spectral index of perturbations is favoured for any sensible choice of prior. It is also found that a flat Universe is favoured with odds of 29:1 over non--flat models, and that there is strong evidence against a CDM isocurvature component to the initial conditions which is totally (anti)correlated with the adiabatic mode (odds of about 2000:1), but that this is strongly dependent on the prior adopted. These results are contrasted with the analysis of WMAP 1-year data, which were not informative enough to allow a conclusion as to the status of the spectral index. In a companion paper, a new technique to forecast the Bayes factor of a future observation is presented.Comment: v2 to v3: minor changes, matches accepted version by MNRAS. v1 to v2: major revision. New results using WMAP 3-yr data, scale-invariant spectrum now disfavoured with moderate evidence. New benchmark test for the accuracy of the method. Bayes factor forecast methodology (PPOD, formerly called ExPO) expanded and now presented in a companion paper (astro-ph/0703063