Blockchain Papers

Adrian MARIAN

The city of Cluj-Napoca turned into the biggest real estate boom in Romania. Although wages have remained at the national average level by field of activity, the price of housing tends to take such a large scale that it exceeds the amount of real estate in many European countries and cities. The community of ordinary, honest and industrious people sees themselves excluded from their own city, suffering because of this price explosion which has an impact in all social spheres. The explanation that the price level is due to the large number of students and computer scientists is easy and convenient for the authorities who do not really have reactions, answers and solutions. KEYWORDS: accommodation, maximum profit, corruption, computer scientists, real estate, money laundering, indolence, incompetence, complicity, community suffering, emigration, solutions. J.E.L. Classifications: R31, R23, O18 1. ARGUMENT After December 1989 in Cluj-Napoca there were phenomena and facts prominently highlighted on the national socio-economic map: the Caritas pyramid megagame, the FNI scam guaranteed in the end by the CEC, the bankruptcy of the largest private Bank "Dacia Felix", the headquarters of two antagonistic national parties UDMR and PUNR and very important, in the long term, the expansion of "Babeș Bolyai" University which became the largest in the country, both in terms of number of students and as the number of sections. The transformation of the number of students into an economic, not only scientific, cultural and social argument, even without coverage on the labor market, induced the increase in the number of students at all universities. It is not easy to mention "all" universities! The six state universities have a large share: "Babeș Bolyai" University, Technical University, University of Medicine and Pharmacy, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, University of Art and Design, Academy of Music. Along with these, the legislation after 1989 allowed the establishment of private education - "Bogdan Vodă" University (one of the first in the city), Dimitrie Cantemir University (centered in Bucharest, but with strong branches of Law and Economic Sciences in Cluj), "Sapientia" University focused on the Hungarian community, as well as "Partium" University in Oradea which has activity in Cluj as well, as well as other higher education institutions reorganized/disbanded over time, or with more limited or meteoric activity - "Avram Iancu", "Spiru Haret", "Phoenix", the Protestant Theological Institute and we do not claim to list exhaustively. It is certain that Cluj-Napoca has the highest density of students compared to the number of inhabitants in the country. These crowds of students, about 100 thousand with master's and doctoral students, in principle, were mainly charged tuition fees and all kinds of expenses were increased, based on the well-known principle of the price that appears as a result of the competition between demand and supply. There is a very high demand in Cluj, sometimes exorbitant, the solution, the most profitable and immediate, was just to increase the prices. Given that practically no dormitories were built after 1989, (only one in the Gheorghieni District, near "Economic Sciences" - FSEGA, but it is not entirely dedicated to students) among the prices that have exploded in Cluj, the shocking is that of rents and, logically, in the next steps, real estate prices. The explanation of the large number of students and IT specialists is the most convenient in excusing apathy or anti-crime inefficiency, but it is also necessary to analyze the hypothesis if part of the pressure on prices can come from financial flows associated with organized crime. 2. POSTULATED: ORGANIZED CRIME IS INTERESTED BY THE BIGGEST PROFIT The accommodation capacity in the state dormitories is approximately 14,000-15,000 places, and the students who do not get a place in the dorm, volens-nolens, enter a rental market where a level of 300-500 euros for a studio apartment excludes young people from disadvantaged backgrounds from Cluj university studies. Many of them would have deserved to perform in Cluj! It is estimated that approximately 65,000 students live in rented accommodation annually. Most students barely pay their rent and living expenses, very few can afford to enter the property market as buyers. There is, however, one category that influences the real estate market the most - IT specialists. They influence more because they have high salaries relative to the rest of the population. However, the infusion of students and the university environment determined the explosion of the crowd of IT-scientists in Cluj-Napoca, rightly considered a "Silicon Valley" of Eastern Europe. The estimate goes up to the existence of about 30,000 IT specialists in Cluj with a number of over a thousand active IT companies. All of these provide clues to the size of the rental market and the total value of real estate transactions. In 2025, Cluj county registered an approximate volume of 30,782 real estate transactions with an estimate of between 1.8 - 2.2 billion EUR annually (sources: ANCPI - National Real Estate Agency; Imobiliare.ro; Storia.ro s.a.). The rental market is more difficult to quantify, but it can be approximated by the number of residential units estimated to be in the rental circuit of at least 45-50 thousand units (apartments and rooms). Considering the data published in some specialized websites, Imobiliare.ro; Storia.ro, or of public institutions (City Hall of Cluj Napoca - floating population) we arrive at a total estimated annual value of approx. 300 million EUR. What happened in the USA during alcohol prohibition when alcohol smuggling produced a huge amount of black money? Who appeared on the market? In drugs, in human trafficking, in the smuggling of oil to Yugoslavia in the 90s, in the massive cutting of forests in countries that do not protect them, in prostitution, in gambling and betting, wherever, when the stake of a very large profit appears, even if it is illegal, who undoubtedly appears? Popular wisdom has an expression that captures the phenomenon: "Let it be, because frogs gather!" Is there a risk that part of the real estate market in Cluj or in Romania will be accessed, influenced or even controlled by organized crime? The clearest proof of the influence of organized crime is the huge number of homes sold that remain unoccupied! Between 18,000 and 24,000 housing units, depending on the information sources, in Cluj-Napoca alone. Thousands of apartments are bought for hoarding. Rising property prices coupled with very low interest rates offered by banks on savings have made buying an additional home an investment for anyone who can afford it. But it is also a classic method of money laundering where the goal is not the profit from the rent, but the legalization of the initial amount through subsequent resale. REAL ESTATE IS FAVORITE TO BE A "SAFE HAVEN" (SAFE REFUGE) FOR ILLICIT CAPITAL Although the presence of the IT sector and students would lead to the thought of a constant demand, especially in the conditions in which a salary recession in IT is foreseen (it actually took place), the hyperbolic evolution of real estate prices in Cluj cannot be justified. Practically, these real estate prices have been decoupled from the real purchasing power of the average salary, even if this "average", in Cluj, contains a lot of IT. Who does the disconnection? A working student, a programmer even with an above-average income is subject to the bank lending grids. When the price per square meter exceeds the threshold of 3000 euros/sq m, or in special areas/center, over 5000 euros/sq m, they become unaffordable for the middle class through mortgage credit. Everyone knows that high prices are supported with "cash", which highlights sources of financing external to the transparent banking system, specific to organized crime that needs to "clean" financial funds of dubious origin as quickly as possible. It's like a geometric law, a postulate, it's just like that, but even if it's like that, it's certainly not a proof on file, it's just an assumption. There are institutions that, based on some laws, will look for this evidence, being within their competence. Some authors on economic crime suggest that real estate markets in fast-growing cities may become vulnerable to the infiltration of capital from illicit activities (Unger, 2021). The real estate sector is recognized as a classic instrument for money laundering, including the profits from drug trafficking (FATF, 2019). An interesting work in the field is by a collective led by Klitgaard Robert "Corrupt Cities: Practical Guide to Institutional Reform". These specialists identify three main mechanisms: money laundering through real estate investments because real estate offers: high and relatively stable value; the possibility of justifying the origin of the funds; integration into the formal economy. capital reinvested from the drug market. According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the drug market generates hundreds of billions of USD annually globally (UNODC, 2023). Part of these funds are reinvested in: residential real estate; commercial premises; urban developments. In Europe, studies on cities such as Amsterdam or Barcelona have shown correlations between the underground economy and speculative real estate investments (Savona, 2020). the third mechanism refers to demand distortion. Is it the case of Cluj? preservation of value; anonymization of property; integration into the legal circuit. Thus, artificial demand can push prices above the level determined strictly by legitimate supply and demand. COMPETENT INSTITUTIONS, CASE STUDY AND THE THREAT NARCO TRAFFIC Combating the phenomenon would require the coordinated action of several institutions: Directorate for the Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) National Office for the Prevention and Combating of Money Laundering (ONPCSB) National Fiscal Administration Authority (ANAF) General Inspectorate of the Romanian Police (IGPR) Law no. 656/2002 on the prevention and sanctioning of money laundering Law no. 143/2000 on preventing and combating drug trafficking and illicit drug consumption Criminal Code (art. 367 – organized criminal group) Examples of relevant files: Romania 2020 – DIICOT file on drug trafficking and money laundering through real estate purchases in Bucharest (DIICOT public release); 2022 – File regarding an organized criminal group involved in tax fraud and real estate investments (Bucharest Court of Appeal), 2023 – Case instituted by DIICOT regarding cocaine trafficking and property investments in the west of the country. Germany: Investigations coordinated by the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) demonstrated the use of real estate for the recycling of profits from drug trafficking networks (BKA Report, 2021). Netherlands: The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU Nederland) reported in 2022 the increase in suspicious transactions in the real estate sector in Amsterdam, associated with the drug economy. THE THREAT OF DRUG TRAFFICKING ON CLUJ. INCLUSIVE OF CLUJ REAL ESTATE Cluj-Napoca is a major university center, and the reports of the National Anti-Drug Agency indicate the existence of high consumption in the university environment (ANA, 2022). In economic theory, a city with: high consumption, logistical proximity, high purchasing power, can generate important financial flows in the underground economy. If these flows are reinvested in real estate, it results: additional pressure on demand; cash purchases; lack of price sensitivity. However, we note that no public data has been identified that accurately quantifies the weight of this phenomenon in the formation of prices in Cluj-Napoca. 6. CONCLUSIONS AND PROPOSALS It is well known that the upward spiral of real estate has a major negative impact on all components of social life. Institutions with competences in the field are expected to leave their mark more and contribute to the normalization of the perspectives of local communities, despite a lack of social reactivity typical of an increasingly aggressive, apathetic population, resigned to the idea that nothing can be done to improve living conditions. A lot can still be done, there are international anti-corruption models. Where there was political will, things got better, some negative phenomena were even eradicated, and some proposals can be extracted from those models: Extending the verification of the source of funds for transactions above a certain value threshold. Constantly checking the real prices from the real estate agencies with those declared at the notary chambers: Automatic interconnection ANAF–ONPCSB–DIICOT. Complete public register of beneficial owners (in line with EU Directive 2018/843). Extended confiscation according to art. 112 Criminal Code. Romania is the country that in peacetime was condemned by pauperization, lack of perspective, systemic corruption to have the largest share of emigrant population in Europe, and of course with an unwanted leading place in the world, and all this took place in peacetime. By analogy, from the much-acclaimed "5-star city", the aberrant price spiral in Cluj-Napoca can produce similar, uncontrollable effects internally. Paraphrasing the legal admonition, we would conclude by warning, "Any silence can turn against us!" REFERENCES National Antidrug Agency (2022). National report on the drug situation in Romania. Balan, C. (2023). Urban economy and real estate market. ASE publishing house. Bundeskriminalamt (2021). Organized Crime Situation Report. Financial Action Task Force (2019). Money Laundering & Real Estate FIU Nederland (2022). Annual Report on Suspicious Transactions. Glaeser, E. (2011). Triumph of the City. Penguin Press. Klitgaard Robert s.a "Corrupt Cities: Practical Guide to Institutional Reform" Ed. Humanitas, Bucharest 2012 Marian Adrian Sorin, s.a THE STUDENT'S GUIDE, Mega Publishing House, Cluj-Napoca, 2016, Marian Adrian Sorin, "Why do Romanians emigrate?" Galaxia Gutenberg Publishing House, Cluj-Napoca, 2023, Marian Adrian s.a, Competences and milestones of training and cooperation in the public order and safety system Galaxia Gutenberg Publishing House, Cluj-Napoca, 2021 Savona, E. (2020). Organized Crime in European Cities. Springer. Unger, B. (2021). The Role of Real Estate in Money Laundering. Journal of Financial Crime. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (2023). World Drug Report. ***Law no. 656/2002 for the prevention and sanctioning of money laundering

Sophie Del Fa, Consuelo Vásquez

As discussed in this special issue’s articles, performativity is a way of understanding social reality as it plays out in the interactions between the various entities that contribute to its constitution. Studying a phenomenon from a performative point of view, or studying performativity as such, requires particular methodological postures and ways of apprehending organizational processes. Despite the many efforts to provide such conceptual and analytical apparatus that performatively oriented researchers need (see our Guest Editorial), a number of blind spots continue to hinder our ability to understand how social relations are brought about in our communicative practices. Taking the stance that some of those limitations are related to the fact that performativity has mostly been theorized by Western scholars from Europe and North America, we want, as a conclusion to the special issue, to shift the perspective and explore the notion of performativity in the light of decolonial approaches. In doing so, we can understand how decoloniality, itself, is a performative gesture and offer an overview of the methodologies that can be put in place to “horizontalize” performative approaches, including organizational communication research, which, as the articles in this special issue demonstrate, has been particularly active in bringing performativity to management and organization studies. Indeed, decolonial approaches decentralize the gaze on this field of study, which continues to focus on definitions originating in the “Global North,” notably the United States, Canada and, to a lesser extent, France.To help us formulate a decolonial understanding of performativity, we turn to Consuelo Vásquez, professor of organizational communication at the Université du Québec à Montréal (Canada), whose name is closely associated with the “communicative constitution of organization” (CCO) tradition, which places performativity at the heart of its project. However, to limit her identity to these few words is reductive since, as we will see in the interview she gave us for this special issue, Consuelo questions her positionality in the liminal and relational space she occupies as a Chilean woman marked by dictatorship but also as a university professor embodying a position of colonial power and domination. Thus, Consuelo, through the research she conducts with Latinx et al. colleagues, invites us to decentralize knowledge production theoretically and methodologically, as well as individually and collectively, recognizing that alternative ways of defining organizational communication would enable us to embrace a performative definition that reflects colonial and exclusive realities. Finally, Consuelo also invites us to rethink the way in which researchers approach organizational processes by taking an interest in organizations “in the margins” and, above all, by putting power relations and the contexts in which this knowledge is produced back at the heart of the analysis.CV: I identify myself as a Latina woman, a migrant living in Canada. The question of positionality is central from a decolonial point of view, so it’s important to emphasize that even though I live in the Global North, I try to speak from the South, and more specifically from Latin America or Abya Yala, to use the Kunas’ expression to refer to the entire American territory prior to European colonization. So, I recognize that I’m in a hybrid position or a liminal space in which, because of my life trajectory, I find myself somewhat in the middle of, or at the crossroads of, a hegemonic culture – that of the Global North – and also a culture that comes from the South, which can be described as being at the margins.For me, it is essential to understand and also deconstruct this position, because, in a way, even if I want to decolonize or even if I try to decolonize the production of knowledge and, in particular, the field of organizational communication, I am at the same time reproducing a form of colonization and violence, since I was trained in the North, I live in Canada and also quite simply because of the fact that I work in an academic institution, a place of colonization, no matter where you are in the world. My trajectory reflects this “in-betweenness” to use Bhabha’s (1994) words.I was born in Chile. My parents moved to Canada when I was very young. I spent my early school years in Canada, where I learned to speak English and French in addition to Spanish. When I was about 11, my parents decided to return to Chile to take part in the pro-democracy social movements. In fact, I’m also what’s known as a “daughter of the dictatorship,” because I was born during that period and my life was impacted by it, notably by living in exile for nine years. To my mind, this also marks a kind of transformation that took place during my career, when I reconnected with my roots, with a Chilean and Latin American identity marked by dictatorships. 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Cryptocurrencies are one of the new financial assets that might provide some hedge, safe havens and diversification benefits towards traditional financial assets.However, the impact of COVID-19 towards their properties was also acknowledged in the literature and showed that COVID-19 significantly changed their properties against other financial assets.However, the comparison of the co-movement for the cryptocurrency and financial assets in the three different periods (pre-COVID-19, during COVID-19, and post-COVID-19) is relatively limited.Therefore, this study aimed to study the differences in the co-movement between Bitcoin and stock indices in ASEAN-5 markets in these three periods.The study period spanned from early January 2018 until the end of June 2024, and the conditional correlation was obtained through the MGARCH-DCC approach.These conditional correlation series were then divided into three periods, and statistically compared their statistical differences using an independent t-test.The results found that the comovement between Bitcoin and market indices was significantly different between pre-COVID-19 and during COVID-19 in all ASEAN-5 markets.Besides, when comparing pre-COVID-19 and post-COVID-19, the result showed that the co-movement between Bitcoin and market indices in Malaysia and Thailand was significantly reduced, while significantly enhanced between Bitcoin and market indices in Indonesia and the Philippines markets.Moreover, the results further revealed the significant differences between the co-movement of Bitcoin and market indices in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand markets.Some useful implications were obtained from the study's findings, and it is expected to be beneficial to the literature and also to stakeholders.

Prof. A. Chandraiah

Urban-rural dichotomy is a poaching challenge to inclusive economic growth and sustainable development across the world. Such imbalance is commonly defined by unequal access to infrastructure, economic opportunities and good public services. This paper discusses how digital technologies, such as broadband, mobile applications, e-commerce, and precision farming tools, are transformative solutions that can be important tools in bridging this gap, economic opportunities, and sustainable livelihoods in rural society. The main hypothesis is that the traditional "urban bias" can be reversed by using specific digital interventions to reduce the transaction costs, widen the market reach, and decentralize the access to knowledge and finance.

DAY REN NGEOW, Teng Tenk Melissa Teoh

Cryptocurrency has seen tremendous growth and has gone through its periods of ups and downs. Using cryptocurrency, users can perform secure transactions thanks to the power of blockchain technology. Additionally, cryptocurrency has also seen increasing growth as a choice for investment, securing high level of return. Usually, the cryptocurrencies which are used as investments are the ones with better reputations and larger market capitalizations such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. Even so, cryptocurrency still faces challenges in mass adoption in its usage and investment. This study looks to determine whether the factors of risk, regulation, social influence, effort expectancy and financial literacy have a significant impact in the behavioural intention of a Malaysian young adult’s consideration to invest in cryptocurrency. A sample of 253 Malaysian respondents has been gathered. Risk, effort expectancy, social influence and financial literacy are found to have a significant relationship with a Malaysian young adult’s intention to invest in cryptocurrency. Regulation on the other hand, is the sole factor that has no impact on a Malaysian young adult’s consideration to invest in cryptocurrency. The certainty of regulatory stability may be one explanation for the lack of influence of regulatory factors on young adults' consideration of investing in cryptocurrency.

Gheorghe Bunea, Olga Mihaela Muntean

The article defines negotiation as the use of information, time, and power to influence outcomes. It underscores the importance of negotiation in both personal and professional settings, highlighting strategies like rhetoric, logic, and non-verbal communication. Various negotiation types, such as distributive (win-lose), integrative (win-win), and rational (objective-based) are discussed. The authors stress the importance of mutual benefit, the psychology of reciprocity, and ethical considerations in negotiations. Finally, the article outlines negotiation tactics and strategies, such as the "YES...BUT" tactic and stress-inducing techniques, while emphasizing that negotiation should be a deliberate choice based on one's comfort and needs. The ultimate message is that learning to negotiate effectively can significantly improve the quality of life. KEYWORDS: effective communication, ethics, manipulation techniques, morality, mutual benefit (WIN-WIN), negotiation, power and influence, social and business J.E.L CLASSIFICATION: E6, E64, E71, F62, G15, H12 1. INTRODUCTION Human beings are highly interactive socially. Talking to each other gives people an exceptionally quick, clear, and thorough way to get to know and form relationships with each other. The real world is a huge bargaining table, and whether we like it or not, we are all participants. We all come into conflict with others, such as family members, business agents, competitors, or government entities. How we approach these encounters can determine not only whether we will prosper, but whether we will enjoy a satisfying, enjoyable, and fulfilling life. Negotiation is an area of knowledge and effort that focuses on winning the favor of people from whom we want certain things. Traditionally, it is assumed that those with the greatest talent, dedication and education are rewarded. But life has disappointed those who claim that virtue and hard work will ultimately triumph. The "winners" seem to be the people who are not only competent, but also have the ability to "negotiate" how to get what they want (Vasile Tran, Irina Stănciulescu, 2001). 2. WHAT IS NEGOTIATION? In every negotiation we are involved in, in every negotiation in the world, from a geopolitical diplomatic negotiation to buying a house, three crucial elements are always present: information, time and power. Everyone's ability to negotiate determines whether we can influence the environment or not. It's about analyzing information, time and power to influence behaviour, satisfy needs and make things happen the way we want them to. What is negotiation? It is the use of information and power to affect behavior in a "warp of tension". If we think about this broad definition, we realize that we actually negotiate all the time, both at work and in our personal lives. Against whom do we use information and power to affect their behavior outside of the job? Husbands negotiate with wives and wives with husbands. We use information and power in addition to friends and relatives. Negotiations can take place with a traffic policeman ready to give us a fine, with a store that does not want to accept our personal check, with a landlord who does not provide essential services or wants to double the rent, with a merchant who wants to cheat us. We can negotiate with customers, bankers, vendors, suppliers. We negotiate more often than we realize. That's why it's important to learn to do it better, more efficiently and thus improve the quality of our lives, at work or outside of it. Regardless of where and between whom they are conducted, negotiations call on rhetoric, logic, and elements of argumentation theory. Sometimes effective communication and manipulation techniques are used. Notions such as offer, request, position, claim, objection, compromise, concession, argument, transaction, argumentation, evidence, etc., can frequently intervene in the negotiation process. At the same time, non-verbal communication elements, such as physiognomy, facial expressions, gestures, posture, clothing, general appearance can have an importance that should not be neglected. The culture of the partners and the bargaining power of the negotiating parties are other elements that must be taken into account. Elements of tactics and strategy, rhetorical traps and tricks, as well as knowledge of the psychology of perception, can play a decisive role in obtaining large advantages in exchange for small concessions. In the contemporary business world, negotiation and the negotiator acquire considerable importance. Never in history have commercial transactions been more numerous and conducted at higher values. For the manufacturer, importer or wholesale distributor, a good negotiator can do in three hours what ten or a hundred contractors do in a few weeks or months. A weak negotiator can lose just as much. A margin of a few percent on the price, the warranty period, the delivery conditions and shipping, at the payment term or a margin of a few percent on commission or interest, always remain negotiable. In large transactions, in the industrial market, where contracts worth billions are negotiated, this negotiable margin can amount to tens or hundreds of millions. From the position of each of the parties, they can be lost or won. Negotiation is a talent, an innate grace, but also a skill acquired through experience, training and learning. The job of negotiator is an elite one, in business, in diplomacy, in politics. Broadly speaking, negotiation appears as a focused and interactive form of interpersonal communication in which two or more disagreeing parties seek to reach an agreement that solves a common problem or achieves a common goal. The understanding of the parties may be a simple verbal agreement. Consolidated by a handshake, it may be a tacit consent or a letter of intent or a protocol, convention or contract, drawn up following common procedures and usages; it can also mean an armistice, an international pact or treaty, drawn up in compliance with special procedures and customs. In relation to the area of interest in which negotiations are carried out, we can distinguish between several specific forms of negotiation. By negotiation we understand any form of unarmed confrontation, through which two or more parties with contradictory but complementary interests and positions aim to reach a mutually beneficial commitment whose terms are not known from the beginning (Ștefan Prutianu, Communication and negotiation in business). In this confrontation, mainly and loyally, arguments and proofs are brought, claims and objections are formulated, concessions and compromises are made to avoid both the breakdown of relations and open conflict. Negotiation enables the creation, maintenance or development of an interpersonal or social relationship in general, as well as a business, work or diplomatic relationship in particular. It should also be mentioned that negotiations do not necessarily always aim at results manifested in the direction of an agreement. Often they are carried for their collateral effects such as: maintaining the contract, buying time, preventing the deterioration of the conflict situation. Apart from these, negotiators' meetings can be seen as a potential channel for urgent communications in crisis situations. The absence of communication can be considered as an alarming sign of the impossibility of carrying out the negotiation; its presence is an indication of the chances that negotiation will occur. At the same time, we must pay sufficient attention to the climate of discretion and thorough gradual construction. As long as the negotiation is conducted with the conscious and deliberate participation of the parties who seek together a solution to a common problem, the approach involves a certain ethics and principle. Mutual benefit (WIN-WIN) In principle, in negotiations, each side adjusts its claims and revises the initial objectives. Thus, in one or more successive rounds, the final agreement is built, which represents a satisfactory compromise for all parties: the negotiation therefore works according to the principle of mutual advantage. According to this principle, the agreement is good when all negotiating parties have something to gain and none to lose. Everyone can achieve victory, without anyone being defeated. The important thing is that when all parties win, they all support the chosen solution and abide by the agreement. The principle of mutual advantage (WIN-WIN) does not exclude, however, the fact that the advantages obtained by one of the parties may be greater or smaller than the advantages obtained by the other or the other parties in negotiations. I use it often. In the psychology of communication, there is a so-called psychological law of reciprocity, a law according to which if someone gives or takes something, the partner will automatically feel the desire to give or take something else in return. Even if we don't actually give something in return, we are still left with the feeling that we owe, that we should give. Following the subtle action of this psychological law, any form of negotiation is governed by the principle of compensatory actions. The consequence is reciprocity of concessions, objections, threats, reprisals, etc. The Latin expressions of this principle are: "Do ut des" and "Facio ut facio". In Romanian, the principle can be found in expressions like: "I give if you give", "I do if you do", "If you give more, you leave me too" or "If you make concessions, I will do it too", "If you raise demands , I will also pick up" etc. 3. MORALITY AND LEGALITY The law is the law and most respect it even beyond the principles. To avoid unpleasantness, the morality of commercial deals, where the law does not appear, often remains a matter of principle, of deontology. Strict adherence to this principle is not really possible. The control of communication ethics is relative. The legal aspects of transactions are an exception, but also from this point of view, in international negotiations, the parties must agree from the start on the rules of commercial law that they will respect. When these differ from one country to another, each party tries to remain under the legal rules of its country. This fact can generate conflicting situations, which can be overcome by adopting the norms of commercial law and international customs. The fine art of negotiation is actually not new. Two of the greatest negotiators in history lived about two thousand years ago. Neither was part of any institution of their time, neither had official authority. However, they both exercised their power. Both men dressed poorly and went about asking questions, and thereby gathering information, the one in the form of syllogisms, the sense of mastery over their situation. Each of them chose their place and manner of death. Yet by death they both gained the devotion of disciples on the face of the earth. In fact, many of us try to live our daily lives according to our values. It is about Jesus and Socrates. They were ethical negotiators, followers of the win-win theory, and they were people of power. There are several fundamental types of negotiation. The real world is a huge bargaining table, and whether we like it or not, we are all participants. Analyzing the type of negotiation we are engaging in is always important. To know and evaluate him already means to predict in broad terms the behavior that the partner will adopt and to prepare his own behavior in response. In this way, the risk of a rupture to conclude a disadvantageous agreement decreases. The specialized literature distinguishes between three fundamental types of negotiation: Distributive negotiation is either/or type, which opts between victory/defeat. It corresponds to a zero-sum game and takes the form of a transaction in which it is not possible for one party to win without the other party losing. Every concession made to the partner is detrimental to the grantor and to each other. In this perspective, negotiation pits two adversaries with opposing interests against each other and becomes a confrontation of forces, in which one of the parties must win. Any concession appears as a sign of weakness. Any successful attack appears as a token of strength. The object of the negotiation will be an agreement that will not take into account the interests of the partner and which will be all the better the harder it hits the opposing party. The negotiation tactics and techniques used in distributive negotiation are typical for resolving conflict situations. They are hard and tense. Among the usual tactics, we can mention: the polemic carried out by permanent counters and by systematic deviation from the subject; assault by force; intimidation; rhetorical maneuvers based on dissimulation, masking intentions, hiding intentions, hiding the truth and blaming the opponent; disqualification for bad faith, personal attack and disparagement. This type of negotiation is possible when the opposition of interests is strong and the imbalance of forces is significant. Another negotiation tactic is the integrative (win/win) one in which the partner's aspirations and interests are respected, even if they go against their own. It is based on mutual respect and tolerance of differences in aspirations and opinions. The advantages of this type of negotiation are that it leads to better, more sustainable solutions, the parties feel better, and the relations between the parties are strengthened. Both win and both support the settlement and agreement reached. Integrative negotiation creates, saves and strengthens long-term human and business relationships. It causes each of the negotiating parties to modify their objectives and adjust their demands in order to resolve their common interests. This approach to negotiation circumvents and avoids conflict situations. The climate of the negotiations is characterized by trust and optimism, and the agreement, once reached, has every chance of being respected. Specific tactics are based on reciprocity of concessions (shorter delivery times against immediate parties, for example). Another negotiation tactic is the rational one, in which the parties do not only aim to make or obtain concessions, consents from subjective negotiating positions, but try to resolve substantive disputes from an objective position, other than the position of one or the other among them. For this, mutual interests must be clearly defined within a framework of total transparency and sincerity, without resorting to the slightest dissimulation or suspicion. It starts with formulating the problems that need to be solved, with answers to questions like: What's not working? Where is the evil? How does this manifest itself? What are the facts that contradict the desired situation? It continues with a diagnosis of the existing situation, insisting on the causes that prevent solving the problems. Then, the theoretical solutions are sought and the measures by which at least some of them can be put into practice are determined by common agreement. The algorithm of rationality therefore means: defining problems; diagnosis of causes; searching for solutions. The negotiator seeks to understand the partner's stake, to know his feelings, motivations and concerns. Divergences that remain unresolved are regulated by recourse to objective criteria, as well as scientific references, legal norms, moral norms or by recourse to the offices of a neutral arbitrator. Anticipating the margin of negotiation is essential. Any start of negotiation requires the definition of objectives. They give us a sense of direction, a definition of what we plan to achieve, and a sense of accomplishment once they have been achieved. 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We have the to our certain and and the ability to influence the In other we can play a role than we realize in our lives and our can be negotiated, Irina of communication, of Communication and

Ciprian Paun, Dragoș Păun

This paper explores the principle of decentralization within the context of the 1923 Romanian Constitution and the subsequent challenges posed by the 1925 Administrative Unification Law. It examines the tension between centralization and decentralization, highlighting the evolving roles of prefects, sub-prefects, and notaries as representatives of central authority in local administration. The study argues that despite the constitutional emphasis on decentralization, the 1925 law reinforced centralization, leading to significant political and administrative controversies. Key debates from the period reveal how historical, cultural, and political factors influenced legislative decisions, particularly the preservation of Romania’s unitary state character. The article also discusses the implications of these administrative reforms on local governance, autonomy, and the efficiency of public administration. By analyzing parliamentary debates and legislative texts, the paper sheds light on the interplay between political power and administrative organization, emphasizing the need for a balanced approach to decentralization that accommodates local needs while maintaining national coherence. KEYWORDS: administrative reform, decentralization, local governance, Romanian Constitution (1923) J.E.L CLASSIFICATION: H11, H83, N44 1. INTRODUCTION The principle of decentralization has been a pivotal theme in public administration, serving as a mechanism for balancing local autonomy with national cohesion. The 1923 Romanian Constitution marked a significant step in embedding decentralization within the legal framework, emphasizing the need for administrative organization laws at county and communal levels to uphold this principle. However, the implementation of the 1925 Administrative Unification Law posed considerable challenges, as it leaned heavily towards centralization, undermining the spirit of decentralization envisioned in the Constitution. This paper delves into the historical and political context of these reforms, analyzing the roles of key administrative actors such as prefects, sub-prefects, and notaries. It explores the legislative debates and societal implications of these changes, highlighting the centralist tendencies that dominated the period. By examining the intersection of political power and administrative organization, this study provides insights into the complexities of governance in interwar Romania, raising questions about the efficacy and sustainability of centralization as a model for state administration. 2. THE PRINCIPLE OF DECENTRALIZATION IN THE 1923 CONSTITUTION Decentralization was perceived by the legislator "not as an autonomous administrative body like in the Middle Ages, disconnected from other administrative bodies, but in close and continuous collaboration." The 1923 Constitution stipulated in Article 108, paragraph (2), that the administrative organization laws of county and communal institutions would be "based on administrative decentralization," as opposed to centralization (1923 Constitution of Romania). A decentralized administrative organization can be identified when "… administrative organizations are recognized as having legal personality and assets (the commune and the county had legal personality), when these organizations have authorities that are not part of the central hierarchy, when they are subject to a specific form of control called administrative supervision, and when certain public services are detached from the competence of central authorities (Tarangul, 1944). Administrative decentralization can be broader or narrower depending on how its defining components are regulated by law. The degree of administrative decentralization essentially depends on the number of public services entrusted to decentralized authorities (territorial decentralization) and the manner of organizing and exercising administrative supervision." (ibidem) Under the new Constitution, which was based on "preserving the national and unitary character of the country in the application of administrative decentralization," the draft law and subsequently the law established the county and the commune as administrative units, endowed with legal personality (Articles 1 and 2), while the territorial subdivision, without legal personality (Article 7), included several communes "to facilitate supervision, ensure the enforcement of laws, and provide proper administrative guidance." (ibidem) Decentralization was not easy to achieve politically, as it had to be implemented without altering Romania's national and unitary state character, while also accounting for the fact that, at the time of Unification, various forms of decentralization coexisted within the four administrative regimes of the united provinces. (Monitorul Oficial, 1925) Regarding this "cultural mosaic," during the Parliamentary Debates in the Romanian Senate on March 31, 1925, opinions were fiercely contested:"For instance, adopting laws from Finland, where the cultural level of the population is almost uniform, and where there are no differences in mentality, customs, or traditions, is not a difficult task. But it is challenging in our case, where the gap between the primitive shepherd in the mountain depths and the highly educated intellectual is so vast, perhaps even greater than the gap between a toddler just learning to walk and speak and a fully grown adult. It is difficult to create laws because they must apply to everyone, and even more challenging is to introduce an administrative law designed to organize numerous issues concerning individuals and society." Political opinions were outright irreconcilable, especially when considering the administrative territorial architecture proposed by the Liberals on one side and the National Peasants' Party on the other. 3. CENTRALIZATION AND THE 1925 ADMINISTRATIVE UNIFICATION LAW The draft law, developed by C. Stere in 1929, envisioned broad local autonomy, limiting the central government's right to intervene in the internal affairs of communes and counties. It also proposed the establishment of a new administrative unit—the province (Scurtu, 1983). During the debates on the Liberal government's draft law, Ion Vescan, speaking on behalf of the National Party in the Senate on March 22, 1925, stated that the current government lacked the political and moral authority to present the country with an organic reform proposal for its administrative organization. He argued that the current legislative bodies were unfit to enact laws that concerned the very existence of the State and its permanent interests. The National Party opposed the administrative reform proposed by the Liberal government, deeming it flagrantly at odds with the principles of a modern administration rooted in the democratic idea of local autonomy, which was, in their view, "the only means to mobilize all healthy and honest forces across Greater Romania." (Monitorul Oficial, P. III, 1925) A Transylvanian senator criticized the substance of the Liberal draft law: "An administrative organization based on the old centralist framework, which for over half a century has stifled the development of county and communal institutions and the growth of civic awareness—the sole foundation of a conscious democracy—can only serve the interests of party absolutism and culminate in the despotism inaugurated by the current government and prepared by all its present legislation." (ibidem) Analyzing the parliamentary debates on the draft law, it can be stated that few laws voted by the Romanian Parliament sparked as much uproar and unleashed such political passions as the Law on Local Administration Organization. The reasons for this interest were manifold, most stemming from the relations and rivalries between the major political parties. Each party, considering its historical contributions to the Great Union, felt obliged to promote such an important law, foundational to the organization of the State's administrative life, rightly called the country's second Constitution.The democratic behavior of opposition parties was not met with understanding by the ruling National Liberal Party. The Liberals rejected any argument referring to realities in the historical provinces, where aspects of administrative organization were recognized by experts as being even more advanced than those outlined in the new administrative organization law. The lack of political compromise between the majority and the minority was evident in statements such as: "First, they have not yet become accustomed to the purpose, role, and power of majorities; they fail to understand that a country where the minority does not recognize the majority, does not recognize the laws and actions of the majority, is a country—or rather becomes a country—that forfeits its right to exist." The 1925 law sparked numerous controversies and even harmed the State by repealing partially better provisions, motivated purely by unjustified pride or the opportunism of unification. Enormous difficulties arose due to the lack of continuity in legal norms, the population's overt distrust in the authorities tasked with enforcing the law, and, not least, the negative atmosphere created by the provisional nature of the system, including the constant threat of abolishing the institutions established under this law. Even C.D. Dimitriu, as the Rapporteur, paraphrased his party leader, I.I.C. Brătianu, during parliamentary debates, acknowledging the project's shortcomings but refrained from amending any article or paragraph in line with the opposition's views, stating: "The law is not perfect; it is perfectible. Who could ever imagine, who could ever claim, that I would come forward with a perfect law?" (Monitorul Oficial, P.III, 1935) The 1925 Administrative Unification Law also conflicted with the provisions of the 1923 Constitution. The principle of decentralization, stipulated in the fundamental law, was not realized because the county prefect, as a representative of the central authority and simultaneously the head of the county administration, restricted the activities of local administrative bodies and even dissolved them with little procedural formality and even less scruple. In its effort to enshrine the unitary character of the State, the law largely continued the centralizing tradition of the Old Kingdom of Romania. Centralization became the administrative system throughout the country, representing a significant regression compared to the existing organization in the historical provinces. Local and county interests were governed according to regulations and financed by resources provided by the central authority, administered by officials directly appointed by the central government. It was well known that this outdated system, already contested in the Old Kingdom before 1918, was being adopted. "Centralism implies the necessity for the State to hold in its hands not only interests of a general nature but also those of a local character, whereas autonomy means that the management and administration of local interests are entirely entrusted to the locals, to those primarily concerned with these interests." (ibidem)The Rapporteur, aware of the advantages of local autonomy, emphasized that it "can yield admirable results when used wisely," but "not when it enables various territorial divisions of a State or various parts or cells of its political organism to develop at the expense of the State's general interests." (ibidem) 4. POLITICAL DEBATES AND LESSONS LEARNED C.D. Dimitriu insisted that it was appropriate for the State, "always vigilant," to ensure the timely oversight of "the proper and correct fulfillment of the functions of the various bodies called to work for the benefit of the entire organism." (ibidem) He agreed that "every commune and county should have as vibrant and prosperous a life as possible," but stressed, "let us always remember that the primary goal is the life and prosperity of the entire organism, the life of the State." This, he argued, must be ensured through effective control over the functioning of the State's components—communes and counties—a task that must be carried out by the central authority (ibidem). In the liberal legislator's vision, the transfer of authority and administrative and financial responsibility from the central level to local public administrations had to be carried out "within the limits of general interests." (ibidem) Under the spirit of the 1925 Law, three actors represented central authority within local administrations: prefects, sub-prefects, and notaries. The prefect—a Napoleonic creation originating from the eighth year of the Great French Revolution—was maintained in the exact form outlined in the Civil Code until the modification of the French Constitution in 1958. Before 1958, the prefect was the government's representative and the head of the administration in the department where they served. After 1958, in France, the prefect became primarily the representative of the State and national interests, followed by their role as the government's representative and head of the department. In Romania, according to the Law on County Councils, No. 396 of April 2/14, 1864, Article 91, the prefect was the "head of county administration, directing all works of this administration and executing the decisions of the County Council." The 1925 Law, Article 3, paragraph 2, described the prefect as the government's commissioner attached to the County Council. In this role, the prefect oversaw the legality of acts adopted by the County Council and the Permanent Delegation. If the prefect identified any illegality, they had the right and duty to appeal to the government within ten days of the act's adoption (if they were present at the meeting) or from the date they were informed. The appeal was suspensive of execution.In both the draft law and the 1925 Law on Legislative Unification, the prefect became a political official rather than an administrative one. During parliamentary debates, it was suggested that the prefect should "have a career background" or be accompanied by a second prefect elected to lead the County Council. Representatives of the National Party supported and argued for the proposal of having two prefects, "one administrative and one political." (Monitorul Oficial, P. III, 1925). The idea was rejected on the grounds that coexistence between the two prefects "would be absolutely impossible—detrimental to good administration." (The 1929 Law, discussed below, later regulated the institutions of the political prefect and the administrative prefect.) Regarding the career prefect, concerns were raised about the irresponsibility of recruiting such a public official. (This position would later be introduced in the 1938 Administrative Law, Article 97, paragraph 2). From the pool of county administrators in the Old Kingdom and the annexed territories, out of 351 prefects, 129 held university degrees, 35 were officers, 51 were former notaries, and 46 were appointed based on exceptional laws without any educational qualifications. In Bessarabia, out of 54 prefects, only 7 held academic titles, 24 had no formal education, and 23 were former active-duty officers. Considering the method of appointing prefects, it is evident that they were designated politically and represented the government in the county through the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The distinction between political, administrative, or career prefects is highly significant, as their legally conferred powers allowed them to politically influence local administration. In the 1925 legislator's vision, the prefect "represents the entire government, corresponds with other ministers, and may inform various departments of the issues they identify and the improvements that need to be made." At the same time, the prefect was the head of the police in urban communes and the head of the gendarmerie in the county (Anuarul pentru toți, 1929). The legal instrument through which the prefect imposed the will of the central authority on local interests was established by the provisions of Articles 78 and 333 of the law. According to Article 78:"The mayor and members of the Permanent Delegation may be removed by a motivated decision of the communal council, adopted with a two-thirds majority of the total number of councilors. The council may only pronounce removal for reasons of ‘poor administration, evident acts of incompetence, bad faith, or culpable negligence that compromise the commune's interests, acts against the order and security of the state, or criminal acts.’" The council was notified by a motivated proposal from the Minister of Internal Affairs for urban communes serving as county capitals and by the prefect for other communes, or by at least one-third of the councilors. Decisions of the communal councils concerning the removal of mayors and members of communal delegations were immediately communicated to the prefect for rural and non-county-seat urban communes, and to the Minister of Internal Affairs for other urban communes. These decisions became final if, within ten days of their they were not by the central removed had the right to within the same a decision could only be based on the of the County Delegation or the Administrative the mayor or members of the Permanent Delegation acts against the security and of the State or to by the central authority, they were removed even the council was not notified by the proper If there was with this is by based on the motivated of the Minister of Internal Affairs with the of the Administrative Council." Article 333 of the law the prefect a both a representative of the central authority and as the head of county administration. the head of county administration, the prefect was the of all they appointed and in with the Permanent Delegation of the County Council (Article The prefect also held authority over these The was a representative of the central authority and a to hold with all to with key and simultaneously to become with the needs of various (Monitorul Oficial, P. III, the prefect, the was a career could also be appointed as they had of and held an academic degree or a from a administrative The as the representative of the central authority in rural communes. the notaries were in the Kingdom without However, the law established four for notaries, followed by two by The law notaries two of and the under certain to become the was also as being "within the administrative the representatives of the central (Article Administrative decentralization the of the as an with legal The was to communal administration and in its (ibidem). In a administrative system, the was in to the principle of it was as a territorial without legal by a The directly to the prefect and carried out the decisions of the the County and any other through laws and The prefect could part of their through decisions, but not on a permanent principle of administrative decentralization, in the draft law and parliamentary debates, only on Under the 1925 Law, centralization became the administrative system, county or local interests were governed according to the and regulations established at the central by institutions by the central authority, administered by officials appointed by the central government, and through financial resources from the one of the project's the lack of decentralization, time will come when administrative decentralization can be in a Senate and just as discussed it in our (ibidem) The 1923 Constitution marked a pivotal in Romania’s administrative the for a governance model that It the of local administrations with legal autonomy, and the to their However, the subsequent adoption of the 1925 Administrative Unification Law the difficulties of constitutional into of decentralization, the law reinforced a administrative that the of local the central control over and communal interests. The implementation of the 1925 law was influenced by a of historical, political, and cultural At its was the to the unitary character of the Romanian state, particularly in the context of with administrative This with the principle of decentralization, in a governance model that leaned heavily on sub-prefects, and notaries, as representatives of the central authority, were in enforcing this undermining local autonomy in of Parliamentary debates during this period political divisions the appropriate between centralization and the Liberal Party centralization as a means of national and administrative the National Party and other opposition for greater local autonomy, rooted in democratic These into legislative and a lack of the implementation of The of the 1925 Administrative Unification Law is one of for balanced By local interests to central authority, the law the development of local institutions of the needs of their It also a on central which stifled and local the administrative of the on this historical period provides insights for The challenges in the interwar period the of decentralization in a manner that local autonomy while national modern this as a of the need to administrative that local authorities without the of the The principle of decentralization, can more and to the of modern governance, the of the interwar period highly The between central oversight and local autonomy a yet of effective administration. the and debates of the period a historical on how to achieve this that governance are not only legally but also and to the needs of 23 a pentru pentru toți, 1929 Oficial, a a 1925 Oficial, a a Oficial, 1925, a Oficial, a a 7 1925 Oficial, a a 1925

Muhammad HafizuddinSufia Sufian, Nur Amisha Sutan Syahril, Norhasliza Ghapa

The rapid evolution of cryptocurrency has prompted significant regulatory responses across the globe, particularly in Southeast Asia, where Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore are at the forefront of this transformation. This comparative analysis examines the regulatory frameworks governing cryptocurrency in these three nations, highlighting the unique approaches adopted by each country in response to the challenges and opportunities presented by digital currencies. Singapore is recognized for its progressive regulatory stance, which aims to foster innovation while ensuring consumer protection and financial stability. In contrast, Malaysia has implemented a more cautious approach, focusing on establishing a comprehensive legal framework that addresses the complexities of cryptocurrency transactions and their implications for the financial system. Meanwhile, Indonesia's regulatory landscape is characterized by a mix of enthusiasm for blockchain technology and concerns regarding potential risks, leading to a somewhat fragmented regulatory environment. This study employs a qualitative methodology, analysing primary and secondary data sources to assess the effectiveness of these regulatory frameworks in promoting cryptocurrency adoption while mitigating associated risks. The findings reveal that while Singapore's model may serve as a benchmark for regulatory best practices, Malaysia and Indonesia face distinct challenges that necessitate tailored regulatory solutions. Ultimately, this research contributes to the understanding of how regulatory frameworks can shape the cryptocurrency landscape in Southeast Asia, offering insights for policymakers and stakeholders navigating this dynamic market.

Richard Sililo, Royson M. Mukwena

An increase in sources of local authority’s revenue in both developed and developing countries has compelled governments to develop policies and laws aimed at guiding local authorities in revenue mobilization. The Zambian government, to be specific, has over the years developed quite many laws for this venture. In addition to the constitutional provision, other pieces of legislation guiding local authorities’ revenue mobilization in Zambia include; the Public Finance Management Act, No. 1 of 2018, Local Government Act, No. 2 of 2019, the Property Transfer Tax (Amendment) Act, 2019, Market and Bus Station Act. No.7 of 2007, the Valuation Surveyors Act, the Rating Act No. 21 of 2018, and the Personal Levy Act of 1996. This paper explores the adequacy of Zambia’s Legal Framework for Local Authorities Revenue Mobilization. The respondents were purposively sampled from the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Local Government, the Decentralization Secretariat, and the Local Authorities. Moreover, the various sources of local authorities’ revenue and pieces of legislation are discussed. Zambia has an adequate legal framework guiding local authority revenue mobilization. It is for this reason that local authorities are encouraged to adhere to the legal framework at all costs if they are to effectively generate revenue and play an effective role in enhancing development.

HaoYang Tan, Lei Hu

This paper focuses on the empirical analysis of personal credit assessment of online lending platform from the perspective of personal credit, and the security of credit privacy data can be guaranteed by blockchain classification model. This paper is mainly based on the chain security encryption operation and decentralized data classifier training model, blockchain storage credit data between the ecological nodes through the transmission of transaction decision data return beacons, to achieve the data retrieval, use, confirm the rights and rewards, and at the same time the use of clustering learning algorithms combined with the decentralized training model to build a unique algorithmic training system, through the machine learning to backtrack all the transaction records, the sharing of the After data processing of credit data information, the fiducial correction fitting model using feedback from data samples, thus opening the modeling method of blockchain and clustering algorithm combined application in the field of credit. In the final analysis, the research on the application of blockchain technology in the credit collection industry should not stop at guaranteeing the security and traceability of data, but rather apply the "pre-credit review", "credit monitoring" and "post-credit management" to the entire credit collection industry. "Instead, it should be applied to the entire credit collection process, and used to guide Internet credit bureaus in their daily credit collection activities. Blockchain technology mainly solves the problem of credit trust and security, for this reason, it is necessary to construct a complete set of methods for analyzing, verifying and measuring Internet credit data. This paper combines the blockchain and the clustering algorithm in machine learning, and empirically analyzes the credit data of Internet consumer financial institutions under this framework.

Noortje Marres

Sociologists have long argued that explanation, as a form of knowledge, has serious limitations when it comes to understanding society. The case against explanation is one of the field's founding ideas, it is literally a foundational idea. It was by rejecting causalist forms of explanation that had been developed in the natural sciences that 19th century scholars and activists that we today call sociologists succeeded in articulating a distinctive realm of reality with relative autonomy from the state, the economy and the family: society (Wagner, 2000). Key to their achievement was the argument that the phenomenon of society is fundamentally different from nature. Scientists at the time expected nature to obey eternally valid laws, but society has a number of features that challenge this assumption. Social actors formulate norms and rules to justify their actions and to make sense of social reality. This means that norms and rules themselves may play an active role in the transformation of social reality. Society, in other words, is marked by reflexivity. Of course, a lot has happened since the 19th century and this very notably includes unrelenting efforts by social scientists to create forms of explanation that are capable of taking reflexivity into account. Yet problems with explanation have continued to make themselves felt in the social sciences and humanities. The problem, in a nutshell, is that explanation sets up the relation between social science and its object, society, in terms of representation, but the relation between knowledge about society and social reality is fundamentally an interactive one: the creation of knowledge about society far more often than not involves intervention in society. The creation of social scientific knowledge can rarely, if ever, by considered a purely representational affair. This obtains for practically all forms of knowledge about society - and as we shall see, about nature as well - but it causes specific problems for the explanation of social phenomena. Let me give an example from contemporary social science, broadly defined. Some years ago computational social scientists published research that showed that the high levels of political polarization that can be observed among communities on Facebook cannot be explained by the role of social media algorithms in the promotion of content. As they put it: “individual choices, more than algorithms, limit exposure to attitude-challenging content” (Bakshy et al., 2015, p. 1131). Such a claim asks us to accept a number of assumptions, most notably, that it is possible to disentangle the influence of individual user choices on news consumption on Facebook from the influence of platform settings such as the structure of news feeds.1 This assumption may or may not ultimately be methodologically convincing. But in grounding its main finding in this distinction, this study distracts attention from a more fundamental phenomenon: that “choice” in online platform settings is socio-technically constituted in a highly distinctive way, involving clicks on links that are dynamically served up by the platform based on social network analysis, among others. This type of “choice” presents a very different form of action as compared to say, choosing what article to read in a paper newspaper. However, and this is the key point, affirming such ontological complexity would no doubt be seen as reducing the “strength” of the explanation offered. As the recently deceased constructivist sociologist Aaron Cicourel (1964) pointed out many decades ago, to draw attention to the participation of the underlying apparatus of social research - in this case, Facebook data categories such as “clicks” and “friends” - in the construction of social reality is to challenge the representational understanding of social science in general and of explanatory social science in particular. Explanation requires the relation between social categories and social reality to be stable and one-way (unidirectional): it requires that social scientific categories first and foremost refer back to social reality. When the apparatus of social research is shown to interfere in the realities it purports to measure, it is clear that this does not quite obtain. A persistent problem with explanation, then, is that its validity seems to depend on the bracketing, externalising or trivialising of dynamics of reflexivity. If the proponents of the idea that “social science is explanation, or it is nothing” would get their way, and social science indeed would offer only explanations, and nothing else, this would surely end up restricting our capacity to interrogate the manifold ways in which social categories interact with social realities. However, most people who are interested and/or trained in sociology are well aware of the phenomenon of reflexivity, of the power of social categories to shape social reality. So why do so many sociologists today favour explanation over other, more open-ended forms of knowledge, like ethnographic description and theory-driven interpretation, methodologies which have been specifically designed to enable interrogation of the interactive relations between social categories and social realities (Krause, 2016)? I would like to argue here that there is another layer to this phenomenon of interactivity, one that has less to do with how norms, categories and methods shape reality, and more with how social science achieves what Norbert Elias (2011) called adequacy to social reality. For me, there is a danger that lurks in the commitment to “explanation” that is related but different from the problem that it legitimates or encourages indifference to reflexivity, the danger namely that it distracts from a key task and purpose of social science: articulation. The slogan “explanation or nothing” makes me think of a remark by the German media scholar Erhard Schüttpelz who once reminded me that “all of our concepts are going downhill all of the time.” At the time, we were speaking about the concept of “media bias,” and the ways in which understandings of such bias developed in the 1970s are no longer adequate, though still highly relevant, to today's digital society with its algorithmic organisation of content, where frames are consolidated through post-discursive, automated, processes of selective circulation. I continue to find Schüttpelz comment helpful more generally speaking, as it draws attention to a brute fact that deeply affects the relation between the social sciences and society, which is that the world, society, is continously changing, and this changing world continuously renders our existing vocabularies, and forms of explanation, deficient. In other words, we should expect our existing social theories to be losing their adequacy to our present social reality. Schüttpelz slogan reminds us that many of the phenomena that it is our job to understand are invisible or badly named, and are difficult to even observe let alone measure. Take the example of the security state, which in its current technological form - which is marked by the deployment of a data-intensive apparatus of monitoring and control - developed in the post-war period, from the 1960s onwards. As the French sociologist Dominique Linhardt (2008) has shown, the very observability of the security state during this period was dependent on targetted interventions in society: it partly depended on the interventions of militants such as the Rote Armee Fraktion in Germany and Provo in the Netherlands whose demonstrations brought the police out onto the streets for all to see. It was these interventions that rendered the phenomeon of the security state publicly visible, putting the repressive apparatus of the state monitoring activists onto the front pages of newspapers. But the observability of this type of information-based security state also depended on the invention of a new kind of sociology, which had to rework its concepts of power, in order to be able to demonstrate the significance of the technological security apparatus to the structuring of wider societal relations between population and state during this period. The point is, in a case like this, it is clear that both a phenomenon in society - the security state - and the categories we use to understand this and associated phenomena - state power - underwent transformation during that relevant period. This is not a context in which “explanation” works very well. To “explain” the security state requires the very phenomenon to be observable and identifiable in the first place, and a lot of work has to be done before we get to that point: the work of articulation. If we go along with Erhard Schüttpelz and recognise that events in the world render our ways of knowing deficient all the time, then it is clear that our work as sociologists must be re-constructive, we will need to be able to revise and rethink our categories, so we remain capable of naming phenomena in the world adequately, so that we can make them count. To give another example from my own field: when in the 1980s feminist technology studies developed the notion of “invisible labour” through fieldwork studies in workplaces like airports and offices (Star, 1991; Suchman, 1996), they transformed the wider concept and understanding of innovation. At the time, innovation was a restrictive notion - and it still is - which allocates a disproportionate amount of agency to the engineers who create technology, while defining the rest of us, workers and consumers, as more or less passive “users.” Feminist studies of invisible labour in technology-mediated work used ethnographic description to demonstrate how often female workers accomplished tasks - performing flight checks, copying documents - that were later acribed to the smooth running of “technology.” It was these descriptions of invisible labour that allowed this phenomenon to be named and defined. Only then could the work begin of incoporating sensibility to unrecognised work into the social study of innovation and its “apparatus of explanation,” and gain the efficacy it has today, for example, in the form of a critical exposé of the invisible labelling that workers in Kenya, India and other countries perform, so that “generative AI” can do well at image recognition (Catanzariti et al., 2021). To emphasise articulation as a key task and purpose of social inquiry is certainly not to imply that explanation is without value. Finding ways to measure the prevalence of invisible labour in society so as to be able to demonstrate its existence, explain its workings, and connect its persistence with wider underlying dynamics in the technological economy, is crucial. The problem, that is, is not with explanation as such, it is with the “or nothing” bit in the slogan above. The adequacy of our explanations to the world is dependent on the prior work of articulation, and it is this dependency that is at risk of being disregarded when it is suggested that explanation is all we need. An important part of the task of social science is to develop vocabularies, formulate categories, cultivate sensibilities, so as to render ever-changing phenomena in society observable, explorable, and communicatable. To name, to formulate, to label, takes us halfway to understanding. It is to draw what Alfred Schutz (1970) calls the “isohypses of relevance,” enabling some entites, some dimensions to stand out, to gain traction, in our engagement with the world, while submerging others. This is the work of articulation, as opposed to explanation. Without it, our explanatory apparatus will not just keep going down hill. Its adequacy will eventually be lost. There is an odd irony in the suggestion that sociologists should today consider putting all their eggs in the basket of “explanation.” We are living at a time in which the natural sciences are finally beginning to come to terms with the interactivity of science, as they grapple with the Anthropocene. Today, more and more colleagues in the natural and technical sciences are gripped by the realization that science has intervened in and indeed harmed and damaged the world in ways to which scientific epistemology previously rendered scientists blind. Representationalism places on science the methodological requirement to regard as external to the scientific mission - which is to represent reality - how its apparatus of representation impacts the world. Representationalism is part of what enabled scientists to cultivate indifference to how their work transformed the world physically, socially, materially, environmentally: think of the stress experienced by lab animals and lab technicians (Friese & Latimer, 2019); the PFAS molecules which are today found in ground and sea water, and known to cause cancer, and which for decades were represented in terms their qualities of “water-proofing” and “stick-resistance” (for carpets). There is a more complex story to be told here about the relation between science and innovation, but the problem is similar to the problem of methodologically ordained dis-interest in socio-technical complexity that I mentioned in the introduction. Damaging effects produced by the apparatus of scientific research on the world used to be referred to as “unintended consequences,” but they are today understood by an increasing number of natural scientists as a siginificant factor in the degradation of nature, animal and human life. Isn't it odd that at the very time that scientists are beginning to recognise interactivities between science and the natural and social world, we are debating whether the primary role of the social sciences is to represent the world? Why? Why would a sociologist today accept that “explanation” is the only serious game in science, at a time when the sciences themselves are finally waking up to the manifold problems with “explanation” as a scientific framework? Granted, one of the benefits of “explanation” is that it has a strong “theory of change” associated with it. Explanation offers us a tight, sequential relation between knowledge and action, whereby the representation of an underlying reality creates the basis for transformative intervention in society, for social change. By comparison, a theory of knowledge that puts articulation centre stage offers a far more contingent, multi-factored and messy view of how change happens in the world, and it requires an openness of inquiry to engage and continually attune understanding to a changing social world. My sense is that it is the strength and simplicity of the associated theory of change that the methodological paradigm of “explanation” promises, that explains much of its attractiveness to sociologists today. Perhaps it can be seen, too, as a response to the utterly restrictive expectations that are placed today on the social sciences. Explanation is able to offer knowledge of long-term processes and enduring underlying causes, which is badly needed in the face of muliplying social, environmental and political crises. It offers a robust alternative to the instrumental conception of social research, which is increasingly imposed on us by state and industry, and which requires that social science delivers on short-term policy needs and value for money, and which can seem to value knowledge of society only to the extent that it is able to produce demonstrable changes in behaviour and bottom-lines (Kelly & McGoey, 2018). However, precisely at this moment, when the social sciences face challenges from multiple fronts - from short-termist expectations of impact, to policy-makers endearement with behavioural science as provider of readily applicable solutions, and the eagerness of some computational scientists to serve as the go-to provider of “social explanations” - it is important that we don't feel pressured to retreat into the narrow methodological frame of “explaination” and to risk inadvertingly reasserting a false hierarchy between explaination and articulation. There is a vital difference between an instrumental social science whose value and legitimacy primarily derive from its ability to service short-term policy needs, and a sociology capable of affirming interactivity between social science and the social world. This difference needs to be urgently clarified, if we are to avoid sleepwalking into a future of shrinking sociological repertoires, and importantly, if we are to get better at engaging, informing and indeed leading the debate that is finally getting underway across the sciences, about what it means to affirm interactivity between knowledge and its objects, not only ethically and politically, but methodologically speaking. To sum up, my real disagreement today is with the “or nothing” element in the idea that social science is explanation or it is nothing. I don't have a problem at all with explanation as a form of social knowledge taking its rightful place among other forms of knowledge in the social sciences. I have a problem with the suggestion that explanation is superior to these other forms, and that other ways of knowing society need to make way for it. My problem is with the hubris of a social science that assumes that the work of articulation, of making phenomena perceptible, can be economised on. It cannot. Explanation depends on articulation: we can only posit and define phenomena and their underlying causes once the struggle to name, to make count - the struggle for the existence of a category - has been fought. The apparatus of explanation that we all rely on - the categories, standards, measures and data formats that together constitute the apparatus of social science - is always at risk of perpetuating outdated, inadequate categories. To the extent that "explanation" assumes that the work of articulation - what matters? how to name this? - can be taken for granted, it risks to become complicit in eroding conditions for articulation. The “or nothing” in the above motion wrongly implies that the renewal of our vocabularies, concepts and methods is of secondary importance. I would therefore like to turn the proposition around. “Social science is reflexive or it is nothing.” Sociology has impressive analytic and methodological resources at its disposal for creating knowledge under conditions of interactivity, and it is this capacity that should be celebrated and requires our endorsement, not just for the sake of advancing the social sciences but all sciences. Social studies of science and technology have shown how interactivity does not just operate on the plane of categorization, but also through indicators, infrastructures and indeed the world, as measures from GPD to the social media “clicks” and the have to the of realities in their affirming such interactivity effects does not making explanation the there are forms of explanation that the changing relations between social reality and the of social reality as their object, as in the work of Norbert Elias In sociological studies of how Elias a of explanation in which change in the explained partly by the dynamics of the I is that our categories, the apparatus that we rely on to render social phenomena and can be understood as a part of these As sociologists have pointed out since at the what and are relevant to the - and - of a social phenomenon is partly at in the of its articulation. is that this to our our categories and the measures that social science on. too, partly depend on and cannot be taken for to and for helpful and to the other in the “Social science is explanation, or it is nothing” for their This debate place online on

Nor Fatihah Abd Razak, Adriana Jaafar, Nur Anissa Amira Rusdi, Nur Fathiematuzzahraa’ Amyra Khalid · 12 authors

Financial technology, also referred to as "FinTech," is a term used to describe emerging technology that aims to enhance and automate the provision of financial services. In this research, the focus was on cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens (NFT), and metaverses that are considered part of the fintech industry, as they all involve technology to facilitate financial transactions and interactions. The insufficiency of quantitative academic literature on the factor influencing students’ acceptance of financial technologies resulting to have uncertainty on the local degree student’s attitudes and perceptions towards these emerging technologies. The purpose of this study was to identify the factors influencing the acceptance of financial technologies. A stratified sampling technique was utilized and 329 respondents were selected. This study used primary data which is by distributing the questionnaire in Google Form and the link was sent out via WhatsApp to collect the data. The independent t- test, one way ANOVA and multiple linear regression were applied in this study. The result of T-test indicates that the male students had higher mean value than female students in accepting the financial technology. Meanwhile, based on ANOVA, there was a significant mean difference in fintech acceptance between programmes. Hence, by using multiple linear regression, the significant factors influencing the acceptance of financial technologies were knowledge, openness, and social influences. It is recommended that future researchers study other areas of Fintech, like blockchain, to gain a better understanding of Fintech as a whole.

Andreas Park

Decentralized exchanges (DEXs) are an essential component of the nascent decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem. The most common DEXs are so-called automated market makers (AMMs): smart contracts that pool liquidity and process trades as atomic swaps of tokens. AMMs price transactions with a deterministic liquidity invariance rule that only uses the AMM’s token deposits as inputs and that has no precedent in traditional finance. Yet, in the context of transparent and open blockchain operations, any liquidity invariance pricing function allows so-called sandwich attacks (akin to front running) that increase the cost of trading and threaten the long-term viability of the DeFi ecosystem. Invariance pricing is also not regret free. Linear pricing rules have similar problems except for uniform pricing, which has regret-free prices and limits sandwich attack profits but which invites excessive order splitting. Comparing trading costs using a model of liquidity provision, constant product pricing is often cheaper except when the variance of the underlying asset is small or when the order is large. This paper was accepted by Will Cong, Special Section of Management Science: Blockchains and Crypto Economics. Funding: A. Park received financial support from the Global Risk Institute and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [Grant 435-2017-0647]. Supplemental Material: The data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2021.02802 .

Patrick Augustin, Alexey Rubtsov, Donghwa Shin

Cryptocurrencies provide a unique opportunity to identify how derivatives impact spot markets. They are fully fungible and trade across multiple spot exchanges at different prices, and futures contracts were selectively introduced on Bitcoin (BTC) exchange rates against the U.S. dollar (USD) in December 2017. Following the futures introduction, we find a significantly greater increase in cross-exchange price synchronicity for BTC–USD relative to other exchange rate pairs as demonstrated by an increase in price correlations and a reduction in arbitrage opportunities and volatility. We also find support for an increase in price efficiency, market quality, and liquidity. The evidence suggests that futures contracts allowed investors to circumvent arbitrage frictions associated with short-sale constraints, arbitrage risk associated with block confirmation time, and market segmentation. Overall, our analysis supports the view that the introduction of BTC–USD futures was beneficial to the Bitcoin spot market by making the underlying prices more informative. This paper was accepted by Will Cong, Special Section of Management Science: Blockchains and Crypto Economics. Funding: The authors acknowledge financial support from the Global Risk Institute. P. Augustin acknowledges financial support from the Canadian Derivatives Institute and from the Canada Research Chair Program of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Canada. The paper has benefited significantly from a fellow visit of P. Augustin at the Center for Advanced Studies Foundations of Law and Finance funded by the German Research Foundation, project FOR 2774, and from a visiting position of P. Augustin at the finance department of the University of Luxembourg facilitated through the Inter Mobility Programme of the Luxembourg National Research Fund. Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4900 .

Didik Gunawan, Indriana Febrianti

The purpose of this study is to test the ability of the ARIMA model to predict the value of Ethereum, especially during economic shocks such as the current COVID-19 pandemic. The population in this study is Ethereum value weekly data for the period January 2017 to December 2020, so there are 208 samples in this study. The results showed that the use of the ARIMA method in predicting the value of Ethereum got poor results, where the forecast value was very much different from the actual value. This is evidenced from the results of the accuracy test using MAPE which got a result of 51.94%. On the other hand, the economic conditions that are experiencing uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the emergence of deficit (decentralized finance) in early 2021 have pushed up a very significant increase in the value of Ethereum so that the error standard is higher and reduces the ability of the ARIMA model to predict the value of Ethereum. Further research is recommended to use a more advanced model such as the Autoregressive Fractionally Integrated Moving Average (AFRIMA) in order to obtain a better forecast value.

Rizal Mustansyir, Citra Istiqomah

<p class="Abstract"><span lang="IN">Massive
 transformation and multifaceted nature of innovation due to increasing
 interconnectivity in globalisation era–particularly through the discourse of
 the Internet of Things (IoT)– have made technology and its instruments nearly
 inevitable in human life, not least in the economic sector. Cryptocurrency as
 one of the products of this activity is getting a great deal of public
 attention. Over time, this currency is gradually favoured by many people around
 the world, especially with the demands for ease of business and transactions in
 the era of digitalisation. The shift allows individuals with access and
 associated resources to store personal assets that cannot be censored/detected
 by central and banking authorities, carry out anonymous financial transactions,
 make high-speed transfers, invest in start-ups, mine new cryptocurrency, and
 even buy land or property in the virtual world/metaverse. All these advantages
 and conveniences encourage individuals, especially businesspersons and
 investors to switch to cryptocurrencies. However, its volatility also incites
 hesitation to adopt it as a medium of exchange/trading transactions. Due to the
 functionality, legality, and disputable implications of its use, this issue
 evokes our interest to study it as a subject matter, especially through the
 lens of axiology. This study employs a qualitative method to generate
 descriptive results. Cryptocurrency serves as a form of digital asset that
 functions as a virtual medium of exchange run in a blockchain system and is
 secured using an automated cipher called cryptography. From an axiological
 point of view, the writer considers at least 5 (five) values constituting
 priority scales in crypto transactions: trust, agreement, utility, pride, and
 speculation. Finally, the writer concludes that cryptocurrency utilisation
 cannot be separated from the axiological perspective of science, considering
 the gap between personal ​​and social values is pertinent.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

Riska Alfiani, Alina Fitriyani, Dina Tauhida

In the practice of decentralization, the Revenue Sharing Fund for Tobacco Excise (DBHCHT) is given to tobacco-producing regions from the State Budget (APBN) in return for their contribution to state revenue. The management of the Tobacco Excise Revenue Sharing Fund is allocated to fund five programs, namely improving the quality of raw materials, coaching industry, social environment development, socialization of provisions in the excise sector, and eradication of illegal excisable goods with priority in the health sector to support the national health insurance program, especially increasing the quantity and quality of health services and economic recovery in the regions. In addition to the health sector, The Minister of Finance Regulation also allocates Revenue Sharing Fund for Tobacco Excise (DBHCHT) in the areas of community welfare and law enforcement.

Maryam Yousefi Nejad, Gabriel Lee Yung, Jaizah Othman, Aza Azlina Md Kssim · 7 authors

The main objective of this study is to investigate the social factors that influence the awareness of cryptocurrencies among young working adults in Malaysia. The study is a cross-sectional, quantitative, and conceptual research. This study focuses on three possible factors that influence cryptocurrency awareness: social acceptance, trust, and confidence. The study suggests that the most appropriate data collection technique for this conceptual work is primary data collection through questionnaires. The results of this study can also provide important input for policy makers to better understand the drive behind cryptocurrency awareness among the population. In addition, this study expands the knowledge of the possible relationship between social factors and cryptocurrency awareness by considering social acceptance, trust, and confidence.

Otabek Bakhromogli Mutalov

AbstractThis article researches the content of the draft Civil Code ofthe Republic of Uzbekistan and the issue of smart contracts. The study also analyzes the issue of defining smart contracts as a written form of agreement and contract. The disadvantages of concluding a will agreement through smartcontracts are justified. The article explores the basics of using smart contracts as a way to fulfill an obligation.

S. Hanumanth Sastry, Teck Heang Lee, MELISSA TENG TENK TEOH

Technologies such as blockchain technology and data analytics are causing major disruptions in various other professions and the audit profession will be no different in due time. The main aim of the study is to look at whether these technologies of blockchain and data analytics will assist the auditors in the various audit processes such as obtaining sufficient appropriate audit evidence, detection of fraud and exercising professional judgment. This study also aims to identify the future direction that the audit profession is heading with the introduction of these technologies and the potential skills that auditors would require in the upcoming years. Data was collected by the researcher in the form of primary data by conducting interviews. 12 auditors were interviewed. The data collected was analyzed using thematic analysis and the findings are presented accordingly to solve the research objectives. From the study, most respondents believe that these two technologies will assist the auditors in these audit processes in various ways. The study also shows that the auditors would have to equipped with skills such as IT related skills to stay relevant in the audit profession which is transforming to a technological/data driven profession.

Yurii Pronchakov, Oleg Bugaienko

The article describes the problem of forecasting prices of cryptocurrencies at the financial markets. Methods for analyzing and forecasting prices of cryptocurrencies at the financial markets are considered in detail. A trend indicator – moving averages – is considered as an auxiliary tool for technical analysis that helps to analyze and forecast prices of cryptocurrencies at the financial markets. During the study there were analyzed several methods of different categories, namely: SMA (Simple Moving Average), EMA (Exponential Moving Average), WMA (Weighted Moving Average). For analyzing moving averages, there were conducted the analysis, based on mean-square deviation together with the standard graphic analysis. The whole process was divided in several stages: a moving average was calculated, based on basic values; based on values of the calculated moving average, there was calculated a mean square deviation; deviation with the least numerical value was chosen among the massive of deviations. It has been revealed, that SMA has the least value of mean-square deviation, but EMA is the better choice, because EMA is most sensitive among considered moving averages, although an error extent is rater more.