Competitive Representative Claimsmaking: Party Politicians and Institutional Factors in the Case of EU Budget Negotiations

This study provides an empirical comparative case study of representative claims-making in EU budget negotiations. Two questions are addressed in this paper. First, the paper asks what the role of elected or appointed partisan politicians is in comparison to other representatives. This question is relevant given the reported increasing importance of non-elected representatives. Secondly, the paper asks what the influence of institutional factors is on the practice of representative claims-making. As representative claims-making unfolds in the public sphere, the institutional factors of the public sphere may affect both the claimants it provides a platform for as well as constituencies represented. The paper finds that politicians continue to perform a crucial role in representation, both with regards to their prominence in the public sphere and with regards to the plurality of constituencies represented in their claims. Although institutional factors clearly affect claimants, there are much less pronounced – though noticeable – differences in the constituencies represented in different public spheres. The overall picture is one of a highly plural representative space in which multiple claimants compete with each other to get their message across. In doing so, claimants address the interests of multiple constituencies. It may well be the inherent competition among claimants, fostered by institutional factors, that ensures the plurality of the EU representative space

Online discussions show the depth of Eurosceptic feeling across Europe, but they tell us very little about the kind of EU that citizens would like to see

Can online discussions, such as comment sections in articles and blog posts, give a clear insight into citizens’ views on the EU? Pieter de Wilde outlines results of a study on the nature of online discussions about the EU. Using a typology of different types of evaluations of the EU, he notes that the majority of contributions to online discussions are notably Eurosceptic. However, a great many of these contributions simply voice criticism of the EU without advocating any specific reforms. The dominance of this kind of comment – which he terms ‘diffuse Euroscepticism’ – ensures that online discussions offer relatively little information about the kind of EU citizens would like to see

Going full circle: the need for procedural perspectives on EU responsiveness

Research on policy responsiveness of the European Union has adopted the systemic model from national contexts. This focusses on the static congruence or the dynamic adaptation of aggregated policy output and similarly aggregated public opinion. Approaches in this vein provide relevant insights and uncover a surprising degree of EU responsiveness. Yet, this debate contribution argues that they only insufficiently capture indirect accountability chains and the emerging challenges of public EU politicization and mediatization. We establish the need for procedural perspectives that addresses how the different EU institutions perceive and digest public opinion and subsequently influence it through communication. To further this research agenda, we sketch the contours of a procedural model by highlighting possible variation at the input, throughput and output stages. Going full circle, we suggest, allows us to better understand the responses to public opinion and their wider implications for the societal acceptance of the unfinished supranational polity

Development and validation of a fast gas chromatography combustion isotope ratio mass spectrometry method for the detection of epiandrosterone sulfate in urine

In doping control, to confirm the exogenous origin of exogenously administered anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS), a gas chromatography combustion isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GC-C-IRMS) analysis is performed. Recently published work suggests that epiandrosterone sulfate (EpiAS) is a promising IRMS target compound for the detection of AAS, capable of prolonging the detection window. However, EpiAS is only excreted in urine in its sulfoconjugated form, while all other IRMS target compounds are excreted glucuronidated, meaning that EpiAS cannot be incorporated in the existing IRMS methods. A separate extensive sample preparation needs to be performed on this compound with a different hydrolysis and extraction procedure and a different liquid chromatography (LC) clean-up. The current work presents a new, fast, and easy to implement EpiAS IRMS method. The approach was based on the direct GC analysis of non-hydrolyzed EpiAS, making the solid phase extraction, hydrolysis, and acetylation step redundant. Sample preparation consisted of a simple liquid-liquid extraction, followed by LC fraction collection. A population study was performed to check compliance with the criteria drafted by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). To verify the applicability of the developed approach, the method was applied to the samples of four administration studies (i.e. dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), testosterone gel (T gel), androstenedione (ADION), and intramuscular testosterone undecanoate. In contrast to previously published data, the strength of EpiAS as the target compound and the prolongation of the detection window in comparison with the conventional IRMS target compounds was less pronounced

Something wonderful in my back yard: the social impetus for group self- building

The housing crisis in the United Kingdom, as Barker (2004) identifies, has become shorthand for a chronic lack of suitable and affordable housing - in both the home ownership and rental sectors - and the undersupply and diminishment of social housing stock (Barker, 2004; Jefferys et al., 2014). What has also become clear is that the mainstream housebuilding sector - speculative housing development - has not risen to the task of ameliorating this crisis. Consequently, there is increasing marginalisation within the housing and land economy, with many people finding that their housing needs cannot be met by the sector. This chapter focuses on the experiences and perceptions of those who have been involved in group self- build projects, where households are involved in the design and/ or production of homes, either by arranging for their construction or building homes themselves within a group of three or more households (see also Duncan and Rowe, 1993). Against the background of the UK\u27s housing crisis, this focus is particularly timely, as such group self- build projects are widely promoted as offering a route into housing that runs counter to these conditions

Something wonderful in my back yard: the social impetus for group self- building

The housing crisis in the United Kingdom, as Barker (2004) identifies, has become shorthand for a chronic lack of suitable and affordable housing - in both the home ownership and rental sectors - and the undersupply and diminishment of social housing stock (Barker, 2004; Jefferys et al., 2014). What has also become clear is that the mainstream housebuilding sector - speculative housing development - has not risen to the task of ameliorating this crisis. Consequently, there is increasing marginalisation within the housing and land economy, with many people finding that their housing needs cannot be met by the sector. This chapter focuses on the experiences and perceptions of those who have been involved in group self- build projects, where households are involved in the design and/ or production of homes, either by arranging for their construction or building homes themselves within a group of three or more households (see also Duncan and Rowe, 1993). Against the background of the UK\u27s housing crisis, this focus is particularly timely, as such group self- build projects are widely promoted as offering a route into housing that runs counter to these conditions

Building performance simulation in the brave new world of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Twins : a systematic review

In an increasingly digital world, there are fast-paced developments in fields such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Mining, Digital Twins, Cyber-Physical Systems and the Internet of Things. This paper reviews and discusses how these new emerging areas relate to the traditional domain of building performance simulation. It explores the boundaries between building simulation and these other fields in order to identify conceptual differences and similarities, strengths and limitations of each of these areas. The paper critiques common notions about these new domains and how they relate to building simulation, reviewing how the field of building performance may evolve and benefit from the new developments

Analyzing Citizen Engagement With European Politics on Social Media

Contributions in this thematic issue focus explicitly on citizens and their online engagement with European politics. For social media research in the European Union, citizens remain an understudied actor type in comparison with political elites or news organizations. The reason, we argue, is four key challenges facing social media research in the European Union: legal, ethical, technical, and cultural. To introduce this thematic issue, we outline these four challenges and illustrate how they relate to each contribution. Given that these challenges are unlikely to dissipate, we stress the need for open dialogue about them. A key part of that involves contextualizing research findings within the constraints in which they are produced. Despite these challenges, the contributions showcase that a theoretical and empirical focus on citizens’ social media activity can illuminate key insights into vitally important topics for contemporary Europe. These include civic participation, institutional communication, media consumption, gender inequality, and populism

Accountability and opposition to globalization in international assemblies

Advocates of a global democratic parliament have expressed hopes that this would not only legitimize global governance in procedural terms, but also bring about more cosmopolitan policies. They point to the European Parliament as an example of a successful real existing democratic parliament beyond the state with cosmopolitan intent. We analyse plenary debates in the United Nations General Assembly and the European Parliament about the issues of climate change, human rights, migration, trade and European integration between 2004 and 2011 to study the nature of opposition to cosmopolitanism within these two assemblies. We find more vocal and better-organized opposition to cosmopolitanism in the European Parliament than in the United Nations General Assembly. We demonstrate the plausibility that direct and more proportional mechanisms of delegation and accountability in the case of the European Parliament account for this observed difference. Should further research confirm these initial findings, advocates of a global democratic parliament may find that an empowered democratic World Parliament would support less cosmopolitan policies than the current United Nations General Assembly