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Third parties who refer clients to expert service providers help clients navigate market uncertainty by curating well-tailored matches between clients and experts and by facilitating post-match trust. We argue that these two functions often entail trade-offs because they require referrers to activate network relationships with different experts. While strong ties between referrers and experts promote trust between clients and experts, the presence of such ties reduces the likelihood that intermediaries refer clients to socially distal experts who may be better suited to serve clients' needs. We examine this central and unexplored tension by using full population medical claims data for the state of Massachusetts. We find that when primary care physicians (PCPs) refer patients to specialists with whom the PCPs have strong ties, patients demonstrate more confidence in the specialists' recommendations. However, a strong tie between the PCP and specialist also reduces the expertise match between a patient's health condition and a specialist's clinical experience. These findings suggest that the two central means by which referrers add value may be at odds with one another because they are maximized by the activation of different network ties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe study examines the critical, but frequently overlooked, role of real estate intermediation in responding to demographic diversity within the organised production of Melbourne’s growth area suburbs. We examined 114 on-site billboards and 38 active residential development sites in the City of Wyndham, one of the most rapidly expanding suburban municipalities in Australia. Our findings underscore the ways real estate intermediation enchants an imagined suburban lifestyle through systematic marketing of community, amenity, and place. In-situ billboards serve as ‘technologies of enchantment’, promoting an Australian housing dream that is less closely associated with individual housing units, but obscures much of the poor social, environmental, and housing outcomes of suburbanisation. Instead, suburbs are presented as a blank canvas for new migrant homebuyers to exercise agency in consuming culture and building community. The study thus highlights the crucial role real estate intermediation plays in the production of future ethnoburbs in the urban fringes. We call for critical scrutiny of the specific use of visual resources that normalise suburban sprawl and substandard housing production by ingraining specific lifestyle imaginations in the Australian public psyche. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides a comparative analysis of the phenomena of Old Testament prophets and shamans against five key aspects: their social status, calling, intermediation, fortune-telling and magic, rituals and cosmogony, and gender. Numerous previous attempts to compare Old Testament prophets, shamans and sorcerers were based on the superficial likeness between these phenomena and often were mere descriptions. The key challenge for such a comparison is the choice of sources: Biblical texts were written in prescientific times, and information about shamans was recorded by ethnographers and anthropologists. This study is an attempt to systematize approaches to comparing Biblical prophets with shamans and to conduct an independent comparison of these phenomena. To achieve this goal, it was necessary to solve the following tasks: 1) to consider the problems inherent in the sources; 2) to clarify the basic concepts characterizing these phenomena, and to substantiate the adopted definitions; 3) to highlight the grounds for comparing the Old Testament prophets and Siberian shamans; 4) to conduct a comparison according to the selected criteria; 5) to establish the similarities and differences. The results of the study are that despite the external similarity of the socio-religious role of prophets and shamans, because of their role in mediation between the human and spirit worlds, they have nothing else in common. Firstly, shamans are integrated into the social architecture of their society (tribal affiliation), and prophets can be both part of the social system or be in opposition; the social status of shamans is higher than that of prophets, since they possessed not only spiritual but also real power. Secondly, the calling of prophets and shamans is different (the former, according to the Bible, are called by God for a specific mission, the latter, according to their experience, are tormented by spirits, forcing them to serve them). Thirdly, unlike prophets, shamans are involved in the sphere of magic and divination, and their actions themselves are inscribed in a certain ritual. Fourthly, the cosmological models of prophets and shamans have nothing in common. Finally, gender diversity among shamans is not only wider than among prophets, but also mobile. In conclusion the authors attempt to find a family resemblance between these phenomena are a crude generalization leading to a number of theoretical misunderstandings.

Sustainable innovations have the potential to drive market systems and behaviours towards greater sustainability, yet the collective efforts of various network actors involved in shaping markets for these innovations are poorly understood. This paper examines the activities that public-private innovation network actors engage in when shaping markets for a side-stream-based sustainable innovation. A qualitative case study exploring a technological sustainable innovation that enables the valorisation and reuse of side-streams is used to illustrate the complex nature of market-shaping activities at the crossroads of different industries. The findings indicate that developing sustainable innovations and shaping markets at the intersection of traditionally separate industries require both side-stream producers and side-stream users to align and synchronise their market-shaping processes. To implement these alignments, different forms of intermediation are needed: brokering for exchange, configuring the technological system, and facilitating narrative construction. The public-private innovation network plays a key role in this intermediation by bringing together various actors, connecting their activities, and reconciling divergent perspectives. Our study contributes to a better understanding of market-shaping in a networked, multi-industry setting and the importance of intermediation through public-private innovation networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a distinctive analysis of the value of international intermediation alliances for co-production, based on the way they operate in practice. While much attention is paid to ideal or normative models of co-production, there is less understanding of the complexities that pervade co-production practices in specific contexts or how this shapes outcomes. Despite longstanding critiques and reflection, international partnerships can reinforce unequal power dynamics embedded in already unequal global research and knowledge production circuits. However, such partnerships, despite their structural problems, can also give rise to more informal relations wherein the long-term value of international co-production inheres. We call for a re-examination of these complex sets of informal relations, beyond the structures of partnerships, that enable co-production across local and global divides. Drawing on comparative international evidence, we propose a framework for understanding and action based on the concepts of alliances, allyship and activism. These three characteristics of international co-production partnerships can constitute socio-material infrastructures that help maintain relationships of solidarity and care over time beyond the remit of individual projects. While this is relevant in any co-production context it becomes particularly important in international research projects so that they do not paradoxically reproduce colonising structures of knowledge production in the search for more just cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of the following paper is to unpack the construction processes behind global architecture that have remained conceptually under-theorized and empirically unexplored. This is achieved by shifting the focus away from the brand-name global architects to the invisible, less prominent project architects employed in their celebrity offices. Based on the analysis of qualitative interviews, the paper conceptualizes project architects as key intermediaries and systematizes their embodied practices of intermediation enacted between design and execution. Project architects are revealed as key actors who negotiate between design ideas and the local contingencies, bridging between different sites of materialization. By introducing the conceptual lens of practices of intermediation, the paper explores how architecture takes its physical form, elucidating the micro-geographies behind construction processes. The construction of global architecture is hereby conceptualized as a 'building event', as a situated 'performance', during which professionals can transgress cognitive boundaries between design knowledge and execution expertise, and formal boundaries, defined by contracts, regulatory framework, and organizational hierarchies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on Howells (2006), the text evaluates the incorporation of intermediation and intermediaries in a systemic context, in particular, in the evolutionary perspective of innovation systems (IS). For this purpose, a semi-systematic review is carried out which shows that empirical work predominates. These reveal that intermediaries enhance IS performance; that through intermediation they solve systemic problems such as the closing of gaps between IS subsystems; and for this purpose they act as mechanisms for coordination and generation of synergies, or for the development of IS actor capabilities. The evidence also indicates that systemic characteristics, such as the prevailing modes of innovation in the IS, condition the role and intensity of the intermediary intervention. These results reveal, in short, a high theoretical potential of the IS-intermediation articulation.

Purpose – Task conflict and relationship conflict are common in organizations. This paper aims to present a unique case of the use of the targeted conflict-resolution technique. The revival of positive group dynamics is aptly shown. Design/methodology/approach – This descriptive case study is developed as a practice insight to showcase how a peculiar case of misunderstanding is resolved in the most unconventional way through the intervention of a mediator who unearths the real cause of contention. The mediator works through logic and emotion to remove negativity. Narration, a necessary component of the case study approach, peeps into the research subject involving flashbacks, flash forward, backstories and foreshadowing. The mediator uses reframing as a tool very efficiently, encouraging the people in conflict to understand the nothingness in their cold war and eventually prompting them to collaborate and compromise. Findings – The shifts in communication dynamics post-mediator’s intervention are subtle and full of wisdom, encouraging introspection and constructive interaction, eventually bridging the differences. The possibility of achieving a state of homeostasis in the future magnifies. The belief in the power of affirmation and manifestation is validated. The heavy, difficult, hardened negativity loses ground and gets transformed. Social implications – Conversation/prayers at the deepest level in several meetings are the communication tools that have immense social relevance in the Indian context. Originality/value – A unique combination of intermediation encompassing written communication and energy transformation is adopted to resolve ongoing conflict by stroking the positive psychology of the partakers. To some, the method may appear to have a spiritual connotation.

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The extensive use of white collar workers, such as bookkeepers and clerks, played a crucial role in the formation of modern states during the early modern period. This article focuses on the formation of a Debt Office in Sweden, which was opened in 1719 in order to administer the liquidation of the debt accrued during the previous royal regime. By utilizing the available expertise that had been working on the debt market, it was relatively easy for the new parliamentary rule to found the office. The office became part of the credit system when it interacted with various creditors. The clerical staff helped the market to function by providing intermediation, but their role became increasingly contentious. By examining the clerical staff, we learn how the authorities tried to build a trustworthy institution. The case thereby offers another perspective on credible commitment than research which concentrates on formal political institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the examples of Versailles, a series co-produced by Capa Drama with the Quebec company Incendo and Zodiak Fiction for Canal+, and No Man's Land, a Franco-Belgian-Israeli co-production produced for Arte France and the US platform Hulu, this article aims to compare two different dimensions of the globalisation of the series market and the integration of French producers and broadcasters into this new transnational creative ecosystem. The challenge for the production of Versailles was to bring the French heritage series up to the standards of the English-speaking world while promoting French producers' financial and artistic creativity in launching series with distinctive stories onto a global market. For No Man's Land, however, the challenge was to produce a cosmopolitan series, featuring several cultural areas and a multilingual cast. Whether in terms of the broadcasters' globalisation strategy or in terms of the creative or even cross-cultural challenges raised by the production process, both experiences are representative of the way series are emerging today as a laboratory of audiovisual 'glocalisation'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immigrants‘ encounters with the new legal system of the welcoming country might vary from challenging to easy process. The newcomers’ path of interaction in the field of welcoming countries‘ legalities is related to the legal knowledge and variety of assumptions about the legal world and how it is embedded in the social reality of a welcoming country. There are many factors, that are involved and shape this complexity but one of them is highly meaningful - the role of intermediaries. Therefore, this research focuses on identifying and discussing the different statuses and roles of the intermediaries as they participate in the process of immigrant‘s interaction with the legalities of the welcoming country. These assumptions are based on the 53 qualitative interviews of foreign third-country residents in Lithuania. The results of the analysis reveal the main roles of the intermediaries while immigrants interact with the new legal system of the welcoming country. This research indicates that intermediaries actively or passively participate in the processes of migrants’ gaining legal knowledge, influence their legal behaviour and become a part of migrants‘ legal interactions. Intermediaries are also seen in the variance of official statuses, visibly gaining different roles in legal relationships which results in different outcomes. Therefore, this research draws attention to the need for more profound attention to the immigrants’ legal relationship and deduces practical implications for it as well.

In geography and, to a lesser extent, in urban planning and development, the topic of Public Procurement (PP) has received little consideration from the French and international scientific community. This observation must be set against the abundant scientific literature from the other related disciplines (management sciences, economics and legal sciences). In France, no thesis on this subject has ever been defended in Geography, a few articles and no books have been published on this interaction between PP and "territories". This observation challenges geographers, policy designers and planners, even though, beyond the question of the law that frames it, PP has always been a major instrument of public policies and their implementation. This research project focuses on how PP is taken into account in the analysis of the dynamics of territorial innovation.In particular, it will enrich our understanding of the dynamics of proximity and territorial intermediation processes, which have become key issues in economic geography and Regional Science. The aim is to understand how, on a territorial scale, public procurement enables coordination and matching between the players involved in these territorial innovation dynamics. The smart city perspective is introduced as a relevant analytical framework for studying the manufacture of urban innovation, focusing on the way in which public procurement facilitates exchanges and interactions between stakeholders with sometimes conflicting objectives and differing timeframes. The text describes a research methodology based on a case study of the Toulouse scene engaged in proactive programs to support innovation since 2014, with a protocol incorporating a complete literature review, a systemic analysis, a data collection via semi-structured interviews, and a comparative approach with other similar territorial scenes.

In this article we wish to point out – using the metaphor of a marital crisis – some of the reasons behind the growing conflict between digital technologies and the law. We identify various causes: Over the last years there has been a radical change in roles: once one looked at the law for solutions, now they are searched in digital technologies, seen as very efficient instruments of governance. Legal instruments are inadequate to cope with a phenomenon in constant evolution, and whose economic and socio-political weight is immense. Digital actors have become the most effective law makers, with rules not only prescriptive but directly executable. Our conclusions are that: The digital has changed international relations. We see "digital empires" and "digital colonies": the EU has gradually fallen in the latter category. The EU approach, expressed by thousands of normative provisions, is ineffective and will be counter-productive in respect of its objectives. It would be preferable to adopt a "general principles" model able to govern not only the present issues but also the changes expected in the next years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a parsimonious model of network formation with introductions in the presence of intermediation rents. Introductions allow two nodes to form a new connection on favorable terms with the help of a common neighbor. The decision to form links via introductions is subject to a trade-off between the gains from having a direct connection at lower cost and the potential losses for the introducer from lower intermediation rents. When nodes take advantage of introductions, stable networks tend to exhibit a minimum amount of clustering. At the same time, intermediary nodes have incentives to protect their position, and stable networks can exhibit nodes exploiting structural holes, that is, bridges across otherwise unconnected parts of the network earning intermediation rents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates which intermediary practices among European aerospace clusters support their diverse membership. Using a configurational approach, we find nine successful sets of practices spanning cluster members with varying levels of internal resources. We unpack important trade-offs, with no single approach to intermediation being ideal in every context. However, the presence of mutual trust is necessary, hinting that its importance in brokered networks has been understated by past research. Furthermore, equifinality exists even for similar types of members, suggesting the need for future research to be attentive to the existence of multiple viable approaches to cluster intermediation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The public sector is a key economic player in society with a significant purchasing power and therefore has the potential to promote societal change while maintaining a degree of control over use of public funds, transparency and fairness. However, current public procurement processes largely result in purchasing products and services through a generally more pre-planned and rigid type of process.In this paper we argue that the current public procurement process is not “fit for purpose” for a transition to large-scale circular public procurement which aims to optimise value retention. In order to overcome this, we propose a conceptual framework that could support public organisations in aligning the procurement processes and structures with the value propositions of their own operations. We suggest that intermediation is the key enabler for a transition to a more circular economy by stimulating innovation in public procurement and with an ecosystem perspective.

The global spread of online work opportunities has inspired a new generation of market-based aid that connects forcibly displaced people to a transnational internet economy. Because refugees face barriers to making a livelihood online, aid organisations and private enterprises support them by building bridges across digital divides, connectivity problems or skill gaps. They thereby become intermediaries and brokers that facilitate connections between refugees and online income opportunities, which often lack decent working conditions and adequate protections. Because digital livelihood initiatives lack the power to reshape these conditions and the value of work in the internet economy, they fail to become mediators with a transformative impact. The result is that the internet economy reshapes livelihoods provision far more than aid can reshape its disempowering effects, despite successes in driving forward refugees’ digital inclusion. Based on more than three years of research including interviews, field visits and surveys, this article foregrounds the current risks that result from the inclusion of refugees into precarious forms of online gig work. To ensure a decent future of work for refugees in the internet economy, the current push for digital livelihoods will require an equally strong push for stronger protections, inclusive regulations and rights.

This paper provides experimental evidence on the economic determinants of inter- mediation networks by considering two pricing rules—respectively, criticality and betweenness—and three group sizes of subjects—10, 50, and 100 subjects. We find that when brokerage benefits accrue only to traders who lie on all paths of intermediation, stable networks involve interconnected cycles, and trading path lengths grow while linking and payoff inequality remain modest as the number of traders grows. By contrast, when brokerage benefits are equally distributed among traders on the shortest paths, stable networks contain a few hubs that provide the vast majority of links, and trading path lengths remain unchanged while linking and payoff inequality explode as the number of traders grows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current literature on the finance‐inequality nexus fall short of providing extensive evidence. This paper fills the gap by framing the financial sector; to the development of financial intermediation (supply side) and individual use of financial services (demand side). The first approach decouples the financial sector into the banking and stock market. We use the 5‐year nonoverlapping averaged data from 1980 to 2017 across 49 countries and employ a panel data fixed effect and two‐stage least squared estimation (2sls). We show that banking and stock market development widens income inequality. Besides, the effect is more prominent in countries that have a banking and stock market than countries only with the banking sector. The second approach uses financial inclusion and financial technology (Fintech) data from three waves of survey data in 2011, 2014 and 2017 on the individual use of financial services across 39 countries. We obtain three key findings. First, institutional quality significantly affects financial inclusion and Fintech. Second, Fintech positively affects inclusion and savings. Third, financial inclusion and Fintech exacerbate income inequality. Our result asserts a natural tendency that financial sector development exacerbate income inequality in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses intermediation in three artistic projects by American artists Helen Mayer Harrison (1927-2018) and Newton Harrison (1932-2022). Entitled The Lagoon Cycle (1973-1984, based in Sri Lanka and the United States), Breathing Space for the Sava River (1989-1990, in the former Yugoslavia) and Endangered Meadows of Europe (1996, in Bonn), these projects defy commodification and openly assert the well-being of ecosystems and ecological change as their main objectives. How is intermediation achieved from these intellectual positions and in these circumstances? The projects have an exhibition component and a performative component of interaction with the social, academic, administrative, institutional or industrial frameworks that surround them (more or less successful depending on the project). They benefited from collaborations with museum institutions, science laboratories, politicians, decision-makers, associations and ordinary citizens. While capital is a major issue for funding these projects and museums represent significant venues where exhibitions were presented, a larger conversation with many of the actors involved was initiated, including the ecosystem itself, which, through the work and beyond it, becomes an agent of its own further dissemination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers an exploration of the imbrications of “business and art” in the United States in the second half the 20th century. It brings to the fore the essential, and understudied, role of a major intermediary: Dorothy Canning Miller. As a curator working for the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), she played a growing, and pivotal role in the Art Committee at Chase Manhattan Bank. Her work at both the MoMA and on the Art Committee of Chase helps us grasp several layers of art intermediation. The Committee set up in 1959 is a de facto intermediary as a structure. And its composition denotes the paramount importance of such new defining artistic, architectural and business trends at the end of the 1950s as corporate modernism, abstraction and new conceptual approaches of business and bank management, as well as the physical space of bank offices and the space devoted to art in almost each single one of those offices. Within that Art Committee the influence of Dorothy Miller, rises to attain great prominence over the more than 20 years when she advised Chase in art purchases as a member of that committee. She was also involved, first hand, in the perusal of the works and their downright installation as intermediaries—in business and in the physical space of the bank itself, more especially in the iconic buildings and locations which were opened at the end of the 1950s and the turn of the 1960s in the Upper East Side (410 Park Avenue) and downtown in the Financial District of Manhattan (One Chase Manhattan Plaza). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses intermediation in three artistic projects by American artists Helen Mayer Harrison (1927-2018) and Newton Harrison (1932-2022). Entitled The Lagoon Cycle (1973-1984, based in Sri Lanka and the United States), Breathing Space for the Sava River (1989-1990, in the former Yugoslavia) and Endangered Meadows of Europe (1996, in Bonn), these projects defy commodification and openly assert the well-being of ecosystems and ecological change as their main objectives. How is intermediation achieved from these intellectual positions and in these circumstances? The projects have an exhibition component and a performative component of interaction with the social, academic, administrative, institutional or industrial frameworks that surround them (more or less successful depending on the project). They benefited from collaborations with museum institutions, science laboratories, politicians, decision-makers, associations and ordinary citizens. While capital is a major issue for funding these projects and museums represent significant venues where exhibitions were presented, a larger conversation with many of the actors involved was initiated, including the ecosystem itself, which, through the work and beyond it, becomes an agent of its own further dissemination.

The William A. Bradley Literary Agency Records help trace the careers of William and Jenny Bradley, two intermediaries in the cultural exchanges between France and the United States in the twentieth century. The archive offers privileged access to an array of transatlantic negotiations in the interwar period and post-Second World War era. This article first aims at including the two agents into the communications circuit relevant to book history that unfolds from writer to editor and on to reader, at a time when the book industry became more international. The article then unveils the sociability rooted in the agents’ participation in the world of Parisian salons and in the building of literary and intellectual relationships in the transnational space of Paris. Ultimately, the article argues that the Bradleys’ lifework articulates cultures in ways that defy the simplified vision of a unidirectional flux in what has been suggested to be an “American Century” of influence and cultural domination. In sum, an interest in intermediation and a transnational approach bring together considerations over the professional contributions of the French-American literary agents and observations about little-known makers of cultural processes. This article draws from the manuscript of Deux agents littéraires dans le siècle américain : William et Jenny Bradley, passeurs culturels transatlantiques (Cossu-Beaumont, 2023) and hopefully serves to shed light on the journeys of William and Jenny Bradley as Atlantic passeurs.

Evident invisibles emerge in the ethnographic encounter which change the whence and the whither of the ethnographic gesture. Long ago, Margaret Mead critiqued anthropologists for ignoring 'the world in between' that makes their fieldwork possible – this article takes the argument a step further, proposing that all ethnographic encounters are fundamentally 'amidst'. Thus, it calls for a shift from translation to intermediation as the guiding trope of ethnography. Although the practice of ethnography requires the objectification of a 'field', metaphysical pluralism remains the fundamental condition of ethnographic intermediation. In light of that, the article critiques (a) the practice of describing our main methodological disposition as 'participant observation', arguing instead for the older term 'intensive ethnographic research'; and (b) the implicit use of the trope of ethnography-as-translation. Ethnographic examples are taken from the author's own fieldwork in the coastal mangroves of southern Bahia (northeast Brazil) in the late 2000s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of social innovation has received considerable interest in recent years, both in research and policy. One of the main challenges lies in understanding how to move from experimentation to spreading social innovation and bringing it to widespread use. This is how concrete objectives for sustainable development can be achieved in a given territory. Intermediation plays an essential but little-studied role in the spread of social innovation. In this study, we endeavoured to understand how the social innovation intermediation process is constructed and its effects. We interconnected the actor-network theory and middleground approach to separate the practices and dynamics at work in an emblematic case: the Start-Up de Territoire (in France). By entering the 'black box' of the social innovation factory, we observed how the role of social innovation intermediary is built gradually over time. We then identified three main social innovation intermediation processes that condition its scale-up: building the vision of the territory, expanding the network, and defining how the different levels interrelate by distinguishing between top-down and bottom-up translations. Our analysis contributes to the literature on social innovation by providing an interpretative framework to understand how intermediation dynamics interrelate at different levels. This contribution thus makes it possible to strengthen the theoretical foundation of social innovation and explore the connection between social innovation and transformation. • Understand the importance of social innovation intermediaries for sustainable development at the local level • Enter the 'black box' of the social innovation factory • Introduce a 'multi-level' approach of the Actor-Network Theory combined with a 'middleground' approach • Offer concrete guidance to encourage the development of social innovation through intermediaries [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Platform urbanism has emerged in recent years as an area of research into the ways in which digital platforms are increasingly central to the governance, economy, experience, and understanding of the city. In the paper, we argue that platform urbanism is an evolution of the smart city, constituted by novel, digitally-enabled socio-technical assemblages that enable new forms of social, economic and political intermediation. We offer a typological framework for a better conceptualization of platform urbanism and its complex socio-economic relationships. We further outline several directions for future research on platform urbanism, specifically: a.) the need to critically investigate new power geometries of corporate, legal and regulatory alignments; b.) how platform urbanism may be expressed in, and affect, cities in the Global South; c.) how it may need to be critically engaged with in regard to its development in response to emergent events such as the Covid-19 pandemic; and d.) how it may shape visions of the current and future city.

How are travelling models adapted locally? What role does administrative intermediation play? How are these models perceived by their target audiences? The article offers answers to these questions through the study of a pension program for the elderly in Uganda, adopting a policy feedback perspective. Political and administrative district authorities occupy an important place in the implementation of the program, and maintain relationships based on paternalistic dominance with its beneficiaries. This paternalistic dominance influences the way in which the latter perceive their pension, as a favor and not a right. As the beneficiaries feel morally indebted, their use of the pension can be oriented by the authorities without resorting to constraints.

This paper proposes a conceptualization of the mechanism of international transfer of infrastructure (as opposed to knowledge, technology, or policy transfer) through the intermediation of development aid organizations (DAOs). DAOs are powerful transnational actors able to provide and mobilize vast resources on behalf of constrained government agencies. They accomplish the transfer first by means of financing, then by assisting in the preparation of the contract packages, and finally in the public procurement process leading to the formation of contractual linkages. Twenty-eight (28) contract packages of seven rail-related projects in the Philippines financed by three DAOs are used as the main dataset, complemented by interview and document data. Through a content analysis of the contracts, the authors derive the mechanism of replication-linkage-flow. The current study has implications for understanding railway infrastructure transfer not only as national development for the recipient country but also as an export for the host country.

We study a model of over-the-counter trading in which ex ante identical traders invest in a contact technology and participate in bilateral trade. We show that a rich market structure emerges both in equilibrium and in an optimal allocation. There is continuous heterogeneity in market access under weak regularity conditions. If the cost per contact is constant, heterogeneity is governed by a power law and there are middlemen, market participants with unboundedly high contact rates who account for a positive fraction of meetings. Externalities lead to overinvestment in equilibrium, and policies that reduce investment in the contact technology can improve welfare. We relate our findings to important features of real-world trading networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past research shows that intermediaries exercise a significant amount of authority and power in cultural fields. In this article, I investigate the case of cultural intermediaries who might appear to have a deficit of power and authority. Stylists and visual merchandisers in luxury fashion cater to elite clients who possess high levels of cultural and economic capital. How do these cultural intermediaries mobilize their cultural capital and expertise to bridge the social boundaries between themselves and their elite clients? Drawing on 17 in-depth interviews and 30 site visits, I find that stylists and visual merchandisers rely on a set of place-based and affective techniques for mobilizing their capital. The case of luxury fashion highlights the role of place in cultural intermediary work and the variation in how intermediaries generate and deploy authority and expertise to bridge social boundaries with consumers of fashion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Mediators' are becoming recognized as necessary actors in managing complex socio-political dynamics in the 'temporary use' of vacant spaces. However, 'mediation' remains understudied and undertheorized in temporary use scholarship. To better articulate mediator roles in temporary use, I review literature on related 'intermediary' roles in 'urban transitions' literature vis-à-vis temporary use practice. Thereby, I propose a typology of roles in (inter)mediation and elucidate selected roles in practice. By articulating how mediators align interests, build networks and negotiate the conditions in planning and development, this article draws attention to changing professional roles in planning and sets a basis for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyse retirees' decision-making from the different bids made available by life insurance companies in the Chilean annuity market. We find that choosing the highest annuity payout was positively (negatively) correlated with the advice given by independent brokers (sales agents and average years of education in the municipality) for a January 2008–May 2018 sample. We also found that retirees were willing to pay for firm reputation. In addition, people who are more likely to take a pension payout without consulting intermediaries are older, married, have a higher pension balance and purchase an immediate annuity. These findings are of interest to those seeking to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the annuity system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper presents an analytical framework that describes the business model of banks. It draws on the classical theory of banking and the literature on digital transformation. It provides an explanation for existing trends and, by extending the theory of the banking firm, it illustrates how financial intermediation will be impacted by innovative financial technology applications. It further reviews the options that established banks will have to consider in order to mitigate the threat to their profitability. Deposit taking and lending are considered in the context of the challenge made from shadow banking and the all-digital banks. The paper contributes to an understanding of the future of banking, providing a framework for scholarly empirical investigation. In the discussion, four possible strategies are proposed for market participants, (1) customer retention, (2) customer acquisition, (3) banking as a service and (4) social media payment platforms. It is concluded that, in an increasingly digital world, trust will remain at the core of banking. That said, liquidity transformation will still have an important role to play. The nature of banking and financial services, however, will change dramatically.

While the international literature has significantly addressed the "new forms of voluntary action," there has been limited attention paid so far to the reintermediation processes of contemporary volunteering. This paper intends to fill this gap. First, a research approach based on a renewed sociological consideration of volunteering, path dependency and strategic field theory is presented and four ideal–typical traditions of volunteering (active membership, direct, program-based and organize-it-yourselves) are introduced. Then the Italian case is explored. Although the analysis is only exploratory, it enables us to understand the coevolutions of the four traditions and to identify a new restructuration model based on professional agencies coming from the membership tradition. The paper can help future studies to reconsider the magnitude and dynamics of second modernity trends and to tackle continuities and changes in the reintermediation of volunteering in situated and processual terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores representations of mothering practices in Songs of the Suitcase (1998) by second-generation Italian Australian writer Anna Maria Dell'oso. This collection of short stories devotes special attention to the interlinks between mothering and mediation among culturally diverse groups in modern Australian society. Theoretical frameworks provided by scholars in translation, interpreting and child language brokering are used to shed light on how Dell'oso succeeds in voicing Italian Australian women migrants' abilities to negotiate and mediate between various cultural groups, ethnicities and generations, especially when it comes to mothering and maternal care. How does Dell'oso configure mothering as the most invaluable caregiving practice, vis-à-vis global mobility and circulation of values? How does she represent and problematize the role of mothers and daughters in modern Australia? How does she challenge families' views on how to mother? How does she interpret the role of the mediator of cultural memories and family beliefs? By displaying the author's fictional alter egos as the most privileged sites of exploration, Dell'oso reflects on the impact of migration upon mothering practices and the mother-daughter dyad. Finally, she offers thought-provoking views on how Italian Australian mothering practices, as social values, are confronted with and fashioned by ever-changing communities of migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with trade platforms whose operators not only allow third party sellers to offer their products to consumers, but also offer products themselves. In this context, the platform operator faces a hold-up problem if he uses classical two-part tariffs only as potential competition between the platform operator and sellers reduces platform attractiveness. Since some sellers refuse to join the platform, some products that are not known to the platform operator will not be offered at all. We find that revenue-based fees lower the platform operator's incentives to compete with sellers, increasing platform attractiveness. Therefore, charging such proportional fees can be profitable, which may explain why several trade platforms indeed charge proportional fees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]