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THE "COUNTRYSIDE" HAS BECOME THOROUGHLY POLITICISED. THE POINTS AT ISSUE ARE CLEAR AS NEVER BEFORE. HIGHEST ON THE AGENDA OF CONFLICT IS THE IMPACT OF MODERN FARMING PRACTICES ON THE WILDLIFE AND LANDSCAPE OF THE COUNTRYSIDE. CONVERSATIONISTS HAVE PRESSED THE DEPARTMENT OF THE ENVIRONMENT (DOE) FOR POWERS TO REGULATE THE ENIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF AGRICULTURE WHILST FARMING AND LANDOWNING INTERESTS HAVE RESISTED ANY MOVES IN THE DIRECTION OF GREATER CONTROLS. THE POLITICAL POWER OF THE FAMING LOBBY IN BRITAIN IS, OF COURSE, RENOWNED. BUT ONE RECENT ANALYST HAS ARGUED THAT ALTHOUGH NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FOOD (MAFF) AND FARMERS' UNIONS ATTRACT CLOSE ATTENTION, THE CONSTRIANTS ON MAFF FROM OTHER GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS CONCERNED AT THE FINANCIAL AND OTHER IMPLICATIONS OF DEVELOPMENTS IN AGRICULTURAL POLICY ARE MORE IMPORTANT. FAR FROM BEING IN A POSITION TO DICTATE TERMS TO THE GOVERNMENT, IT IS SUGGESTED, THE NATIONAL FARMERS' UNION (NFU) HAS BEEN DEPENDENT ON ITS GOODWILL.1

Republication of essay which was originally in DATA browser 06 EXECUTING PRACTICES: http://data-browser.net/db06.html This collection brings together artists, curators, programmers, theorists and heavy internet browsers, all of whose practices make a critical intervention into the broad concept of execution. It draws attention to their political strategies, asking: who and what is involved with those practices, and for whom or what are these practices performed, and how? From the contestable politics of emoji modifier mechanisms and micro-temporalities of computational processes to genomic exploitation and the curating of digital content, the chapters account for gendered, racialized, spatial, violent, erotic, artistic and other embedded forms of execution. Together they highlight a range of ways in which execution emerges and how it participates within networked forms of liveliness. With contributions by Roel Roscam Abbing, Geoff Cox, Olle Essvik, Jennifer Gabrys, Francisco Gallardo, David Gauthier, Brian House, Yuk Hui, Peggy Pierrot, Andy Prior, Helen Pritchard, Linda Hilfling Ritasdatter, Audrey Samson, Susan Schuppli, Kasper Hedegård Shiølin, Eric Snodgrass, Winnie Soon, Femke Snelting, Marie Louise Juul Søndergaard, and Magda Tyżlik-Carver.

Algorithms do not act alone or with magical (totalising) power but exist as part of larger infrastructures and ideologies. Some well-publicised recent cases have come to public attention that exemplify a contemporary politics (and crisis) of representation in this way. The problem is one of learning in its widest sense, and "machine learning" techniques are employed on data to produce forms of knowledge that are inextricably bound to hegemonic systems of power and prejudice.

▪ Abstract  Electoral coordination occurs at two main levels: (a) within individual electoral districts, where competitors coordinate entry and citizens coordinate votes; and (b) across districts, as competitors from different districts ally to form regional or national parties. We know a fair amount about district-level electoral coordination for single-tier electoral systems. In particular, when political actors are primarily concerned with the current election and have good information about the relative chances of potential competitors, two different M + 1 rules apply in an M-seat district. First, the number of competitors entering a given race tends to be no more than M + 1; second, when more than M + 1 competitors do enter a race, votes tend to concentrate on at most M + 1 of them. We know much less about cross-district coordination, in which potentially separate local party systems merge to form a national party system. This essay focuses on the latter, relatively neglected topic.

IN THIS ESSAY, THE AUTHOR CONSIDERS HOW ELECTORAL LAWS AFFECT PARTIES' MOBILIZATIONAL INCENTIVES AND, HENCE, TURNOUT. THE STRATEGY IS TO LOOK SYSTEMATICALLY AT HOW DIFFERING ELECTORAL RULES AFFECT THE TRANSLATIONS FROM EFFORT-TO-VOTES, VOTES-TO-SEATS, AND SEATS-TO-PORTFOLIOS, AND HENCE, PARTIES' INCENTIVES TO MOBILIZE.

The Privacy Act of 1974 is the cornerstone of current legal guarantees about the privacy of personally identifiable information in possession of the Federal government. Explores the broadening of the routine use clause, a practice that has resulted in distortion and weakening of the protections provided by the Privacy Act.

THIS PAPER FOCUSES PRIMARILY ON SYSTEMS IN WHICH EACH VOTER HAS A SINGLE (NON-TRANSFERABLE) VOTE. FOR SUCH SYSTEMS, IT SHOWS THAT, IF THE DISTRICT MAGNITUDE AND DISTRIBUTION OF VOTE SUPPORT AMONG PARTIES ARE HELD CONSTANT AND SOME EMPIRICALLY ATTAINABLE CONDITIONS ARE MET, THEN THE D'HONDT PR FORMULA AND THE PLURALITY RULE FORMULA WILL YIELD IDENTICAL SEAT ALLOCATIONS. THIS RESULT WILL SEEM LESS SURPRISING ONCE THE DEFINITION OF PLURALITY RULE IS UNDERSTOOD, BUT WILL REMAIN INSTRUCTIVE. THE PAPER ALSO SHOWS THAT, DISTRICT MAGNITUDE HELD CONSTANT, D'HONDT AND PLURALITY RULE HAVE IDENTICAL THRESHOLDS OF EXCLUSION. THESE TECHNICAL RESULTS ARE USED TO ILLUSTRATE BROADER TERMINOGICAL AND CONCEPTUAL CONFUSIONS IN THE EMPIRICAL LITERATURE.

Fun and Software offers the untold story of fun as constitutive of the culture and aesthetics of computing. Fun in computing is a mode of thinking, making and experiencing. It invokes and convolutes the question of rationalism and logical reason, addresses the sensibilities and experience of computation and attests to its creative drives. By exploring topics as diverse as the pleasure and pain of the programmer, geek wit, affects of play and coding as a bodily pursuit of the unique in recursive structures, Fun and Software helps construct a different point of entry to the understanding of software as culture. Fun is a form of production that touches on the foundations of formal logic and precise notation as well as rhetoric, exhibiting connections between computing and paradox, politics and aesthetics. From the formation of the discipline of programming as an outgrowth of pure mathematics to its manifestation in contemporary and contradictory forms such as gaming, data analysis and art, fun is a powerful force that continues to shape our life with software as it becomes the key mechanism of contemporary society. Including chapters from leading scholars, programmers and artists, Fun and Software makes a major contribution to the field of software studies and opens the topic of software to some of the most pressing concerns in contemporary theory.

Speaking Code begins by invoking the "Hello World" convention used by programmers when learning a new language, helping to establish the interplay of text and code that runs through the book. Interweaving the voice of critical writing from the humanities with the tradition of computing and software development, Speaking Code unfolds an argument to undermine the distinctions between criticism and practice, and to emphasize the aesthetic and political aspects of software studies.Not reducible to its functional aspects, program code mirrors the instability inherent in the relationship of speech to language; only interpretable in the context of its distribution and network of operations. Code is understood as both script and performance, it is argued, and is in this sense like spoken language – always ready for action.Speaking Code examines the expressive and performative aspects of programming; alternatives to mainstream development, from performances of the live-coding scene to the organizational forms of commons-based peer production; the democratic promise of social media and their paradoxical role in suppressing political expression; and the market's emptying out of possibilities for free expression in the public realm. The book's line of argument defends language against its invasion by economics, arguing that speech continues to underscore the human condition, however paradoxical this may seem in an era of pervasive computing.