Popular Contention and its Impact in Rural China

Protest outcomes in rural China are typically an outgrowth of interaction between activists, sympathetic elites, targets, and the public. Popular agitation first alerts concerned officials to poor policy implementation and may prompt them to take corrective steps. As a result of participating in contention, certain activists feel empowered and become more likely to take part in future challenges, whereas others feel disillusioned and lapse into passivity. In the course of observing collective action, some onlookers are sensitized to protesters' concerns and public opinion is affected. Without popular action, better implementation, biographical change, and effects on the public would not emerge, but nor would they without involvement from above. Studying the impact of this protest thus sheds light on two issues that have long troubled students of contentious politics: (a) how to get a grip on indirect, mediated consequences; and (b) how to think about causality when change is a result of popular action as well as openings provided by sympathetic elites. © 2005 Sage Publications

Tactical Escalation in Rural China

Résumé « Escalade tactique » dans la Chine ruraleL'archétype de la résistance légitime, c'est le dépôt d'une requête collective auprès de l'administration. Mais que se passe-t-il si la requête est ignorée ? Certains protestataires de longue date, face au peu d'alternatives qui s'offrent à eux, et trop fiers pour renoncer, adoptent des formes plus directes d'opposition : porter à la connaissance de tous les termes des mesures politiques, exiger des débats, affronter face à face les responsables locaux. Ces actions directes représentent une rupture par rapport aux formes de résistance légitimes qui passent par la médiation, dans la mesure où ceux qui mènent les protestations, loin de se contenter de rapporter les violations commises, essayent d'y mettre un terme en en appelant aux communautés locales autant qu'aux autorités supérieures. Cette « escalade tactique » résulte d'une transformation des opportunités et nous rappelle que le fait de considérer que les opportunités sont plus ou moins nombreuses dépend en réalité des tactiques adoptées.AbstractPetitioning is the archetypal form of rightful resistance. But what if a petition falls on deaf ears? Some long-time protesters, seeing few alternatives and too proud to accept defeat, have turned to three more direct forms of confrontation: publicizing policies, demanding dialogues, and face-to-face confrontations with local officials. Direct action signals a break with more mediated forms of resistance, since protest leaders, rather than reporting a policy violation, try to stop it by appealing to the community as much as to higher authorities. This “tactical escalation” is a consequence of shifting opportunities and a reminder that any assessment of whether opportunities have expanded or contracted depends on the tactics adopted

Bis(μ-1,2-bis­{[2-(2-pyrid­yl)-1H-imidazol-1-yl]meth­yl}benzene)bis­[bis­(thio­cyanato-κN)cadmium(II)]

The asymmetric unit of the binuclear title compound, [Cd2(NCS)4(C24H20N6)2], contains one half-mol­ecule, consisting of one Cd2+ cation, two half 1,2-bis­{[2-(2-pyrid­yl)-1H-imidazol-1-yl]meth­yl}benzene (L) ligands and two SCN− anions. The dimeric cyclic mol­ecule is completed by crystallographic inversion symmetry. The Cd2+ cation is coordinated by two N atoms from two SCN− anions and four N atoms from two symmetry-related L ligands, exhibiting a distorted octrahedral coordination. A two-dimensional supra­molecular network stacked parallel to [210] is finally formed by linking these dimers through weak π–π stacking inter­actions between the pyridine rings and benzene rings of adjacent dimers, with a plane-to-plane distance of 3.36 (6) Å and a centroid–centroid distance of 3.67 (2) Å. One of the thio­cyanate S atoms is equally disordered over two positions

Retracted: Optimization of E‐commerce platform marketing method and comment recognition model based on deep learning and intelligent blockchain

Abstract Retraction: [Tao Cheng, Lianjiang Li, Optimization of E‐commerce platform marketing method and comment recognition model based on deep learning and intelligent blockchain, IET Software 2023 (https://doi.org/10.1049/sfw2.12117)]. The above article from IET Software, published online on 3 February 2023 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com), has been retracted by agreement between the Editor‐in‐Chief, Hana Chockler, the Institution of Engineering and Technology (the IET) and John Wiley and Sons Ltd. This article was published as part of a Guest Edited special issue. Following an investigation, the IET and the journal have determined that the article was not reviewed in line with the journal’s peer review standards and there is evidence that the peer review process of the special issue underwent systematic manipulation. Accordingly, we cannot vouch for the integrity or reliability of the content. As such we have taken the decision to retract the article. The authors have been informed of the decision to retract