The Hollow Promise of an Accounting Standard Setter

Purpose – This paper applies a power framework to critically analyse the international accounting standard setting process for the extractive industries. Design/methodology/approach – Publicly available data, including comment letters, annual reports, company websites, and IASC/IASB pronouncements, is used to make connections between the key plays involved in the international accounting standard setting process for the extractive industries. Findings – Lukes’ (1974) conception of power is used to explain the community of interests that developed between the IASC/IASB and extractive industries constituents. This community of interests is shown to have enabled the extractive industries to mobilise its power to paralyse the standard setting body and secure favourable regulation. While the politicisation of accounting standard setting is widely acknowledged, the revelation that economically dominant groups can covertly wield such power is a sobering one in the light of the worldwide promotion and adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards. Originality/value – This paper contributes to understanding of the presence of power in the international accounting standard setting process and how it is mobilised by key constituents

Environmental sustainability in the mining sector: evidence from Catalan companies

This paper examines the adoption of environmental practices in small and medium sized companies inthe surface mining industry in Catalonia (Spain). To fulfill this aim, a survey of 41 items concernint environmental management systems and environmentally sustainable practices has been conducted. Results show that companies have committed themselves to environmental and sustainable issues. The majority of companies claim to understand the effects of their activities on the environment and they care for responsible access and management of natural resources. Restoration plans and the annual waste declaration are mandatory in Catalonia, and rational resources exploitation practices have been adopted by a high percentage of mines. Finally, some examples of good environmentally sustainable practices are introduced.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author’s final draft

Actors and repertoires of contention

Industrial mining is currently one of the fastest growing sectors of the world economy, particularly in the Global South. The present mining boom is, however, accompanied by numerous conflicts: conflicts over labour relations, over territorial control and access to water and land resources, over the effects on local livelihoods, on gender relations and ecological systems, and over the distribution of profits and tax revenues. In this paper, a typology of mining conflicts is developed, starting with existing case studies of current conflicts over industrial mining in sub-Saharan Africa and building on my own research in Burkina Faso. In contrast to existing typologies, the one presented here is based not on the subjects of the conflicts but on actor constellations: conflicts between trade unions and mining companies; between civil society organisations on the one hand and the state and mining companies on the other; and between artisanal miners and mining companies. I argue that historically shaped socio-ecological and socio-economic conditions, namely the existing land usages, have a crucial effect on the actors and actor constellations in conflicts over mining, and that different actors have different means of engaging in conflict at their disposal, and thus rely on different repertoires of contention when engaging in collective conflicts.Der industrielle Bergbau ist gegenwärtig einer der am stärksten wachsenden Wirtschaftssektoren weltweit, insbesondere im Globalen Süden. Der aktuelle Bergbau-Boom geht mit einer Vielzahl an Konflikten einher: um Arbeitsbeziehungen, um territoriale Kontrolle und den Zugang zu Wasser- und Landressourcen, um die Auswirkungen auf lokale livelihoods, auf Geschlechterverhältnisse und Ökosysteme sowie um die Verteilung der Gewinne und Steuereinnahmen. Dieses Kapitel entwickelt ausgehend von bestehenden Fallstudien zu gegenwärtigen Konflikten um den industriellen Bergbau in Subsahara-Afrika sowie aufbauend auf eigene Forschungen in Burkina Faso eine Typologie von Bergbaukonflikten. Anders als bestehende Typologien konzentriert sich diese nicht auf die Konfliktgegenstände, sondern auf die Akteurskonstellationen der Konflikte: zwischen Gewerkschaften und Unternehmen; zivilgesellschaftlichen Organisationen auf der einen und Staat und Unternehmen auf der anderen Seite; und zwischen Akteuren des handwerklichen und industriellen Bergbaus. Ich argumentiere, dass historisch geformte sozial-ökologische und sozio-ökonomische Bedingungen, insbesondere die bestehenden und vorherigen Formen der Landnutzung, wesentlichen Einfluss auf die Akteurskonstellationen in Konflikten um die Ausweitung des industriellen Bergbaus haben. Die Akteurskonstellationen wiederum bedingen die Mittel des Konfliktaustrags: Unterschiedliche Akteure haben unterschiedliche Mittel zur Verfügung und greifen entsprechend auf unterschiedliche „repertoires of contention“ in kollektiven Konflikten zurück

Computational Controversy

Climate change, vaccination, abortion, Trump: Many topics are surrounded by fierce controversies. The nature of such heated debates and their elements have been studied extensively in the social science literature. More recently, various computational approaches to controversy analysis have appeared, using new data sources such as Wikipedia, which help us now better understand these phenomena. However, compared to what social sciences have discovered about such debates, the existing computational approaches mostly focus on just a few of the many important aspects around the concept of controversies. In order to link the two strands, we provide and evaluate here a controversy model that is both, rooted in the findings of the social science literature and at the same time strongly linked to computational methods. We show how this model can lead to computational controversy analytics that have full coverage over all the crucial aspects that make up a controversy.Comment: In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Social Informatics (SocInfo) 201

Demand Forecasting: Evidence-based Methods

We looked at evidence from comparative empirical studies to identify methods that can be useful for predicting demand in various situations and to warn against methods that should not be used. In general, use structured methods and avoid intuition, unstructured meetings, focus groups, and data mining. In situations where there are sufficient data, use quantitative methods including extrapolation, quantitative analogies, rule-based forecasting, and causal methods. Otherwise, use methods that structure judgement including surveys of intentions and expectations, judgmental bootstrapping, structured analogies, and simulated interaction. Managers' domain knowledge should be incorporated into statistical forecasts. Methods for combining forecasts, including Delphi and prediction markets, improve accuracy. We provide guidelines for the effective use of forecasts, including such procedures as scenarios. Few organizations use many of the methods described in this paper. Thus, there are opportunities to improve efficiency by adopting these forecasting practices.Accuracy, expertise, forecasting, judgement, marketing.

The miracle of the Septuagint and the promise of data mining in economics

This paper argues that the sometimes-conflicting results of a modern revisionist literature on data mining in econometrics reflect different approaches to solving the central problem of model uncertainty in a science of non-experimental data. The literature has entered an exciting phase with theoretical development, methodological reflection, considerable technological strides on the computing front and interesting empirical applications providing momentum for this branch of econometrics. The organising principle for this discussion of data mining is a philosophical spectrum that sorts the various econometric traditions according to their epistemological assumptions (about the underlying data-generating-process DGP) starting with nihilism at one end and reaching claims of encompassing the DGP at the other end; call it the DGP-spectrum. In the course of exploring this spectrum the reader will encounter various Bayesian, specific-to-general (S-G) as well general-to-specific (G-S) methods. To set the stage for this exploration the paper starts with a description of data mining, its potential risks and a short section on potential institutional safeguards to these problems.Data mining, model selection, automated model selection, general to specific modelling, extreme bounds analysis, Bayesian model selection

From low-conflict polity to democratic civil peace: explaining Zambian exceptionalism

An absence of civil war and other significant sub-state violence makes Zambia an exceptional although not unique case in central-southern Africa. The literature devoted to explaining civil war has grown dramatically in recent years, but while it pays much attention to sub-Saharan Africa only rarely does it investigate counterfactual cases like Zambia. Similarly the growing field of research into post-conflict reconstruction fails to capture the distinct features of persistently low-conflict situations where many of the predisposing conditions for violent conflict might seem to be present. This paper examines Zambia’s experience against a background of general theories that try to explain conflict. It is an “interpretative case study”. The paper proceeds by substantiating Zambia’s claim to a relatively peaceful record and introduces ideas of conflict and conflict theories, before arguing that no single general theory dwelling on just one primary “cause” will suffice to explain Zambian exceptionalism. The precise mix of arguments differs for each one Zambia’s three republican eras, as the potential threats to peace have themselves evolved over the period since independence. The paper’s main theoretical claim is that over time the explanation is both multi-layered and dynamic. That said, certain features do stand out, most notably an inherited political culture that is predisposed against the violent resolution of conflict and continues to insulate the country against social and economic traumas and democratic shortcomings