Gun violence in the United States often spurs long‐running conflicts, but little is known about how individuals involved in these conflicts cope with the lingering threat of being shot. Drawing on an ...in‐depth ethnographic case study of one young man's long‐running gun conflict in New Orleans, as well as on interviews and fieldwork with other young men in his social network who dealt with similar conflicts, this study examines how individuals contend with direct, ongoing threats of violence targeted specifically at them. It finds that these threats can severely disrupt people's lives. When targeted individuals anticipate that their opponents will seek them out through known associations and whereabouts, people and places that were previously sources of security become newly imbued with apparent danger. Such insidious threats force targeted individuals to cut off formerly vital relationships and routines. These isolationist strategies help keep targeted individuals safe, but in the process they snuff out opportunity, stifle otherwise healthy relationships, and give rise to protracted stalemates. The findings show how the lived experience of a long‐running gun conflict can be characterized primarily by caution and defensiveness, not by going on the attack. They also reveal previously hidden social consequences of these defensive strategies.
Biological organisms exhibit diverse strategies for adapting to varying environments. For example, a population of organisms may express the same phenotype in all environments (“unvarying strategy”) ...or follow environmental cues and express alternative phenotypes to match the environment (“tracking strategy”), or diversify into coexisting phenotypes to cope with environmental uncertainty (“bet-hedging strategy”). We introduce a general framework for studying how organisms respond to environmental variations, which models an adaptation strategy by an abstract mapping from environmental cues to phenotypic traits. Depending on the accuracy of environmental cues and the strength of natural selection, we find different adaptation strategies represented by mappings that maximize the long-term growth rate of a population. The previously studied strategies emerge as special cases of our model: The tracking strategy is favorable when environmental cues are accurate, whereas when cues are noisy, organisms can either use an unvarying strategy or, remarkably, use the uninformative cue as a source of randomness to bet hedge. Our model of the environment-to-phenotype mapping is based on a network with hidden units; the performance of the strategies is shown to rely on having a high-dimensional internal representation, which can even be random.
Refugee response planners no longer frame Syrian refugees merely as objects of humanitarian care. Increasingly they are portrayed as enterprising subjects, whose formal integration into labor markets ...simultaneously can create self-sufficient actors and cure the economic woes of host countries. However, bringing together humanitarian and economic agendas is not an easy task. This article analyzes the contradictions and frictions that have emerged in the process of implementing the Jordan Compact, a political commitment to integrate Syrian refugees into the formal Jordanian labor market, and which is supposed to showcase such win-win strategies. It argues that the Jordan Compact should be seen as a policy model that has achieved enough consensus and incorporated enough disparate objectives to be labelled a 'policy success.' Yet, central actors have neglected core features of Jordan's political economy and labor market, and/or the lives and survival strategies of refugees, such that their radical blueprints of transformation have been disrupted. Despite the widespread commitment to the scheme, it is thus unlikely that the Jordan Compact will both reinvigorate the Jordanian economy and offer Syrians the prospect of a dignified, self-sufficient life, an important lesson for comparable schemes being rolled out across the globe.
Solar photovoltaic (PV) power generation is a major carbon reduction technology that is rapidly developing worldwide. However, the impact of PV plant construction on subsurface microecosystems is ...currently understudied. We conducted a systematic investigation into the effects of small-scale light stress caused by shading of PV panels and sampling depth on the composition, diversity, survival strategy, and key driving factors of soil bacterial communities (SBCs) under two vegetation restoration modes, i.e.,
(
) and
var.
(
). The study revealed that light stress had a greater impact on rare species with relative abundances below 0.01% than on high-abundance species, regardless of the vegetation restoration pattern. Additionally, PV shadowing increased SBCs' biomass by 20-30% but had varying negative effects on the numbers of Operational Taxonomic Unit (OTU), Shannon diversity, abundance-based coverage estimator (ACE), and Chao1 richness index. Co-occurrence and correlation network analysis revealed that symbiotic relationships dominated the key SBCs in the
sample plots, with Chloroflexi and Actinobacteriota being the most ecologically important. In contrast, competitive relationships were significantly increased in the
sample plots, with Actinobacteriota having the most ecological importance. In the EP sample plot, SBCs were found to be more tightly linked and had more stable ecological networks. This suggests that EP is more conducive to the stability and health of underground ecosystems in vulnerable areas when compared with LC. These findings offer new insights into the effects of small-scale light stress on subsurface microorganisms under different vegetation restoration patterns. Moreover, they may provide a reference for optimizing ecological restoration patterns in fragile areas.
How do ordinary people choose survival strategies during intense, surprising political violence? Why do some flee violence, while others fight back, adapt, or hide? Individual decision-making during ...violence has vast political consequences, but remains poorly understood. I develop a decision-making theory focused on individual appraisals of how controllable and predictable violent environments are. I apply my theory, situational appraisal theory, to explain the choices of Indian Sikhs during the 1980s–1990s Punjab crisis and 1984 anti-Sikh pogroms. In original interviews plus qualitative and machine learning analysis of 509 oral histories, I show that control and predictability appraisals influence strategy selection. People who perceive “low” control over threats often avoid threats rather than approach them. People who perceive “low” predictability in threat evolution prefer more-disruptive strategies over moderate, risk-monitoring options. Appraisals explain behavior variation even after accounting for individual demographics and conflict characteristics, and also account for survival strategy changes over time.
Migrants in transit through Mexico are often separated from their social networks; this increases the risks associated with an already precarious process. Through eight months' worth of ethnography ...and 40 in-depth interviews conducted on the southern and northern borders of Mexico, this article seeks to understand how migrants compensate for their lack of social networks and find emotional and economic support and information while in transit. The research found that, for Central American transit migrants, the most efficient way to access the necessary resources to move was by forming a community en route - a "transient community." This community facilitates cooperation and the sharing of resources between its members and other migrants who they do not know and do not trust. It provides: a shared identity created by a common struggle; solidarity and resources; and information and "rules of the game." The solidarity and the sharing of information and resources facilitate the journey of undocumented migrants and reduce its costs. This study shows that transit migrants form new social arrangements that overcome the uncertainty and violence of life on the road, and that cooperation and solidarity can exist even among people who mistrust each other and share no common social ties.
In Australia, nearly 30,000 asylum seekers have the legal right to work, but their temporary and conditional migration status exposes them to work-related precarity. This article draws on a small ...qualitative study that examined asylum seekers' experiences of seeking work and achieving economic security. Over an 18-month period, 29 semi-structured interviews with asylum seekers who had work rights in Australia were conducted. It provides insights into how restrictive immigration policies manufacture precarity through short-term, conditional visas, resulting in employer risk aversion, segmentation into insecure work, and in-work instability and mistreatment. Asylum seekers manage their experiences and feelings of pervasive insecurity through individual coping and survival strategies.
Tüm büyük parazit gruplarında, konak bağışıklık sisteminden kaçınma mekanizmalarının inceliği, karmaşıklığı ve çeşitliliği konusunda her geçen gün yeni ve şaşırtıcı kanıtlar ortaya çıkmaktadır. ...Milyonlarca yıllık evrimsel süreçte memeli ve kum sineği konaklar Leishmania’ya karşı savunma sistemleri geliştirmiş buna karşın Leishmania da karmaşık karşı stratejiler sayesinde konaklarının savunma sistemlerinden kaçmakla kalmamış onları kendi yaşamını ve üremesini destekleyecek şekilde manipüle etmeyi de başarmıştır. Bu çalışmada Leishmania’nın kum sineği ve memeli konaklarında kullandığı hayatta kalma stratejileri ve son araştırmalar ışığında bu stratejilerin altında yatan mekanizmalar özetlenecektir.
The international dimension of authoritarian resilience is receiving increased attention by scholars of comparative politics and international relations alike. Research suggests that autocratic ...states exploit regionalism to boost domestic regime security. This article explains how membership in regional organizations can help to strengthen survival chances of autocratic incumbent elites. It argues that membership provides additional material, informational, and ideational resources to autocratic incumbents that can be used to boost domestic survival strategies vis-à-vis internal and external challengers. The article provides qualitative case-based evidence to show how autocratic incumbents in Zimbabwe, China, and Bahrain have benefited from the involvement of regional organizations during moments of political instability to strengthen legitimation, repression, co-optation, and international appeasement strategies. The article thereby provides the first encompassing explanation linking regionalism and authoritarian survival politics that is applicable across regions and different types of authoritarian regimes.
Coronavirus outbreak is the latest world tragedy that have affected all sectors in economy. The lockdown, confinement, limited movement order and social distancing are amongst the preemptive ...governments’ effort to safeguard the public health. While recognizing the importance of the national order in preventing the immense spread of the virus, the authors contend that there are certain undiscovered impacts of the control order policy on SMEs in Malaysia. The objectives of this article are to scrutinize the implications of the Covid-19 Movement Control Order (MCO) on SMEs businesses and to identify survival strategies based on the owners’ perspectives. The study applies qualitative approach conducted through phone-based interviews with six selected SMEs’ owners during the first phase of control order from March 18, 2020 to March 31, 2020. In summary, the impacts of MCO on SMEs are classified into the operational problems (i.e. operation distruption; supply chain distruption; foresighting the future business direction) and the financial problems (i.e. cash flow imbalance; access to stimulus packages; risk of bankcruptcy). Meanwhile, the major themes of current survival strategies fall under the financial and marketing strategies. The paper recommends few suggestions for future research work, business development agencies and entrepreneurs.
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