This paper explores the validity of a contextual approach to development research, the Temporal Logic Model. It does so, through the presentation of a case study evaluation of internally displaced people assistance in Colombia. The analysis concentrates on the relationships existing among the political and technical dimensions of traditional closesystem development research methods, such as the...

The Istanbul Policy Center-Sabanci University-Stiftung Mercator Initiative organized a seminar entitled “After the Paris Treaty: Anti-coal Struggles in Turkey” by Bengi Akbulut (Political Economist, Member of Political Ecology Working Group and Ekoloji Kolektifi) on Thursday, March 31, 2016. This event was convened by 2015/16 Mercator-IPC Fellow Hande Paker. It was aimed at exploring current an...

In this brief article I identify and characterize the variety of simulation methodologies relevant to political science research. Having identified them, I then recount a lighthearted tale of one successful application of a computer simulation to a real world problem of enormous significance. Extending the discussion to other examples, I discuss some of the main issues and benefits in simulatio...

Medical data are among the most sensitive data of a person. They should be effectively protected. But there are more problems, political and technical, than successful solutions. There is a need for political and public discussion to reach a consensus on conflicting goals; a number of legal issues still need to be resolved. On the other hand there are promising and ready-to-use technical concep...

This chapter surveys the new institutional economics, a rapidly growing literature combining economics, law, organization theory, political science, sociology and anthropology to understand social, political and commercial institutions. This literature tries to explain what institutions are, how they arise, what purposes they serve, how they change and how they may be reformed. Following conven...

Science,” co-hosted by Political Studies and The Centre for Research Methods in the Social Sciences, Oxford University, June 2008. I thank Susan Orr for her skeptical comments on this version. I presented earlier versions as a discussion paper at a conference on “Epistemologies of Rational Choice,” Department of Politics, NYU, December 2004 and as part of the Blalock Lectures on Advanced Topics...

This article examines controversies surrounding the implementation of the first colonial indigenous health service, the Assistance Médicale, in Cambodia. It characterizes individual and group behaviours in the immediate social conditions of colonial Cambodian society, as well as some of the paradoxes of the modernization narrative ascribed to the colonial science of this period. This discussion...

Blogs are probably most associated with the high profile postings of a few highly popular bloggers who debate or comment on major news stories, but for each ‘A-lister’ there are numerous faceless bloggers who write about their own daily lives and/or interests. Hence it is interesting to investigate the extent to which an event with extensive media coverage, such as the London attacks, is reflec...

The discussion focuses on three themes. One is the divergence between positions of business associations and concerns of individual entrepreneurs regarding several determinants of investment. Another issue is under what conditions economic growth can be achieved under democracy; why market reforms have generated little private investment in many cases, and which government policies and politica...

The discussion focuses on three themes. One is the divergence between positions of business associations and concerns of individual entrepreneurs regarding several determinants of investment. Another issue is under what conditions economic growth can be achieved under democracy; why market reforms have generated little private investment in many cases, and which government policies and politica...