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Role is an under-studied topic in research on virtual game worlds, despite its centrality in the ubiquitous term “massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG).” In this article, we report on a study of the role concept and its relevance to virtual worlds, with emphasis on the MMORPG World of Warcraft (WoW). In particular, we focus on the concept of structural role, a term introduced to delineate a certain kind of social actor that carries greater-than-average responsibility for facilitating the diffusion of culture across interlocking groups. Beginning with a brief discussion of structural roles, this paper draws on ethnographic research in a raiding guild and interviews with hardcore WoW players to investigate the roles of guild and raid leaders in building and maintaining collaborative group play. Our study explores not only the expectations and obligations for players in key structural positions, but also specific processes through which they are embodied in everyday life online. Data show that an interest or willingness to learn the intricacies of gameplay, to take responsibility for players’ emotional well-being, and to manage a shared definition of the situation are all basic components of the guild and raid leaders’ roles, and guild or raid success is often reducible to the extent to which leaders master these components.

A certification attempt involving an incumbent union is known as a raid. Very little is known about union raiding, yet a large number of workers are affected by raiding and unions continue to debate the process. This paper tests various hypotheses of the nature of union raiding using unique data on raiding attempts over the 1978–1998 period in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The principal findings are (1) raiding attempts are much more likely to succeed when the incumbent union has underachieved in collective bargaining, and are often used in such circumstances; (2) employers favor the incumbent union, are effective in influencing the outcome, but use very different tactics than in regular certification; (3) independent unions fare better in raid contests relative to the national and international unions; and (4) there is a modest amount of inter-affiliation raiding, but much of this is between AFL–CIO affiliates who apparently disregard their no-raiding agreements when operating in Canada.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of Strike Force Piccadilly, a New South Wales Police initiative to address an upsurge in ram raids targeting automatic teller machines (ATMs). Also, the aim is to understand the apparent success of the project in terms of a public‐private partnership, involving primarily police and the retail and banking sectors.

The New South Wales Police provided data showing the numbers of attempts and successful ATM ram raids on a monthly basis from August 2005 to April 2008. The preventive interventions are set against these data in a time series format. The paper is limited to within‐group data, with consideration of displacement effects by reference to recorded crime data and police intelligence. Interviews about the project process are also conducted with three key participants: the police manager leading the project (public sector), the security manager of a major retail shopping centre chain (private sector) and the commercial security operations manager of a major bank (private sector).

The increase in ATM ram raids is halted, and the number is reduced from 69 in the 12 months before the intervention to 19 in the final 12 months of the post‐intervention period – a 72 per cent reduction. For the same periods, successful raids are reduced from 30 down to two – a 93 per cent reduction. The research indicates that the main influences on the decrease are: the creation of a police priority alarm response system and the installation of situational prevention measures, including special bollards. The larger context for success is the partnership formed between police and industry. The interventions are developed through consultation, co‐operative research and commitment from all parties.

The paper demonstrates the potential significant crime prevention benefits of public‐private partnerships, especially when they are well organised and include research and information sharing. Additionally, the findings challenge the often pessimistic literature about police response times by demonstrating how rapid response can be highly effective in certain circumstances.

When the controller of a storage system becomes more and more powerful, it sometimes creates new data and stores this data in the system, just like parity information in RAID level 5. We call these phenomena data self‐create. This paper provides a theory about data self‐create which separates data self‐create phenomena into 16 kinds. Three applications are introduced. From a pansystems view, this paper also gives an explanation of data self‐create.

To describe the methodology used to introduce Clinical Governance into the NHS and to review progress.

The RAID (Review, Agreement, Implementation, Demonstration) process and its use in introducing the Clinical Governance Development Programme into the NHS are described.

The NHS Clinical Governance Programme employs RAID, a modification of an accepted “bottom‐up” approach to achieving successful organisational change, as the means of effecting service improvement. The “Review” stage involves analysis and understanding of the service; “Agreement” ensures that all staff, the organisation and stakeholders are committed to recommended changes; the “Implementation” phase tests effects that the changes have made to the service and “Demonstration” allows evaluation and monitoring. Lessons learned from the process can lead to further improvements. Initially staff from the Clinical Governance Support Team introduced the Programme but thereafter the process can be run internally. Specialised programmes, e.g. The Stroke Programme, have developed out of the general programme and the RAID process has been disseminated to other public sector services. Over half of NHS organisations have participated.

RAID is described in the context of the NHS and its implementation is summarised.

The purpose of this paper is to explain the discrepancy between ethnohistorical accounts on north-western Kalahari San of the nineteenth to early twentieth century and recent ethnographic accounts, the former depicting the San as intensely warlike, the latter as basically peaceable.

Review of historical, ethnohistorical and ethnographic source material (reports, journal articles, monographs).

The warlike ways of the nineteenth-century Kalahari San were reactions to settler intrusion, domination and encapsulation. This was met with resistance, a process that led to the rapid politicization and militarization, socially and ideationally, of San groups in the orbit of the intruders (especially the “tribal zone” they created). It culminated in internecine warfare, specifically raiding and feuding, amongst San bands and tribal groupings.

While the nineteenth-century Kalahari San were indeed warlike and aggressive, toward both intruders and one another, this fact does not warrant the conclusion that these “simple” hunter-gatherer people have an agonistic predisposition. Instead, of being integral to their sociality, bellicosity is historically contingent. In the absence of the historical circumstances that fuel San aggression and warfare, as was the case after and before the people's exposure and resistance to hegemonic intruders, San society and ethos, in conformity with the social structure and value orientation of simple, egalitarian band societies, is basically peaceful.

A setting-the-record-straight corrective on current misunderstandings and misinformation on hunter-gatherer warfare.

Argues that branch security systems have to be designed to balance a number of often conflicting requirements since a totally secure branch could be created, but it would be impossible to operate as a retail unit. There are, nevertheless, significant technical developments in the security industry concerned with a range of electronic and physical devices for use at branch level and there is no doubt that these have a significant effect on deterring robbery. There is a need, however, for higher standards of co‐operation between financial services institutions, manufacturers and installers of branch systems and the various regulatory authorities.