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Purpose – This chapter examines how sentiment analysis and web-crawling technology can be used to conduct large-scale data analyses of extremist content online.

Methods/approach – The authors describe a customized web-crawler that was developed for the purpose of collecting, classifying, and interpreting extremist content online and on a large scale, followed by an overview of a relatively novel machine learning tool, sentiment analysis, which has sparked the interest of some researchers in the field of terrorism and extremism studies. The authors conclude with a discussion of what they believe is the future applicability of sentiment analysis within the online political violence research domain.

Findings – In order to gain a broader understanding of online extremism, or to improve the means by which researchers and practitioners “search for a needle in a haystack,” the authors recommend that social scientists continue to collaborate with computer scientists, combining sentiment analysis software with other classification tools and research methods, as well as validate sentiment analysis programs and adapt sentiment analysis software to new and evolving radical online spaces.

Originality/value – This chapter provides researchers and practitioners who are faced with new challenges in detecting extremist content online with insights regarding the applicability of a specific set of machine learning techniques and research methods to conduct large-scale data analyses in the field of terrorism and extremism studies.

This chapter provides a presentation about Chapter 1 of The Balance of the National Economy, 1923–24, edited by Pavel Illich Popov. The Balance was issued in June 1926 by the Central Statistical Administration (CSU or TsSU) of the USSR, which Popov had headed from July 1918 to January 1926. In the first part of our chapter, we show how Popov’s work on the balance of the national economy was rooted in the specific scientific and political culture of zemstvo statisticians inherited from the Tsar. Statistical inquiry was considered an objective scientific process based on international standards. Furthermore, like zemstvo statisticians, CSU statisticians developed great autonomous political power. The balance of the national economy was built according to these principles, which met harsh criticism from revolutionaries and Bolsheviks. In the second part, we analyze the contents of Popov’s Chapter 1, especially the theoretical foundations of the balance and its connection with Soviet planning. In the third part, we discuss the balance’s significance in the years 1926–1929, years which ended the NEP and launched the first Five-Year Plan, so as to understand how CSU’s balance didn’t become a standard Soviet statistical instrument and was discarded as a “bourgeois” device.

The National Assembly of Wales has powers in 20 devolved policy areas, including education, economic development, health, housing, social services and local government. Given the social democrat character of the first three elected assemblies in Wales, Wales would appear well placed to interrupt the reproduction of socio-economic disparities. However, Wales is a relatively poor part of the United Kingdom. In this chapter, we consider economic inequality among the Welsh population set within the policy and economic context. Analysis demonstrates how the Welsh labour market has responded to the economic crisis and how this has affected both inequality within Wales and spatial inequality that exist across the United Kingdom. The development of equalities and anti-poverty policy making in Wales and how these have so far been treated separately in policy are examined. The chapter concludes by considering the possibility for the new and distinct policy levers in Wales in relation to the integration of anti-poverty, employment, economic and equality policies that have the potential to address the combined impact of socio-economic inequalities in the future.

The purpose of this chapter is to overview what extant research says about parental involvement in online learning environments.

The approach in this chapter is a systematic review of literature focusing on engagement frameworks.

Parents have the potential to be the key to overcoming key concerns about attrition and achievement in online settings. However, research has been silent as to how to engage parents more fully as learning coaches for their children.

Research about parental involvement in online learning should consider the roles of both teacher and parent as they coordinate their efforts to improve student engagement. Research also needs to look at what parents need to know about helping their students be successful and how to provide the training and expertise to parents that will help them learn critical support skills.

This chapter is particularly timely in light of the dramatic growth in online learning and the resulting concerns about achievement and attrition that are particularly acute among at-risk populations.