Pose Generation for Social Robots in Conversational Group Formations

We study two approaches for predicting an appropriate pose for a robot to take part in group formations typical of social human conversations subject to the physical layout of the surrounding environment. One method is model-based and explicitly encodes key geometric aspects of conversational formations. The other method is data-driven. It implicitly models key properties of spatial arrangements using graph neural networks and an adversarial training regimen. We evaluate the proposed approaches through quantitative metrics designed for this problem domain and via a human experiment. Our results suggest that the proposed methods are effective at reasoning about the environment layout and conversational group formations. They can also be used repeatedly to simulate conversational spatial arrangements despite being designed to output a single pose at a time. However, the methods showed different strengths. For example, the geometric approach was more successful at avoiding poses generated in nonfree areas of the environment, but the data-driven method was better at capturing the variability of conversational spatial formations. We discuss ways to address open challenges for the pose generation problem and other interesting avenues for future work.

Debtor spaces: Austerity, space, and dispossession in Michigan’s emergency management system

In recent years, debt has become a major focus of geographic research as debt relations have become increasingly central to today’s financialized capitalist economy. This paper bridges two aspects of the debt literature: (1) the emergent literature on debt spatiality, which argues that space plays an active role in the creation and maintenance of debt relations, and (2) the broader literature examining processes of debt-driven dispossession (e.g., foreclosure, eviction, austerity, etc.). Recent literature in geography, led by Harker’s work on debt spaces, has argued that debt should not only be understood as a temporal relation (a promise of future labor) but a spatial relation as well. This literature has examined the active role of space in creating debt relations but has been less attentive to the ways in which debt is a key mechanism of dispossessive economies. Analyzing Michigan’s emergency management laws, a system of forced, localized austerity, I chronicle how the social production of space is central to dispossessive debt projects. I conclude by offering a new concept, debtor spaces, to characterize the socio-spatial formations which enable practices of debt-based dispossession.

Place-making, Politics and Borderscapes in Southeastern Europe

This article introduces a collection of case studies on the politics of borders and the place-making processes in Southeast European border environments. It opens with explorations of how the social analysis of borders oscillates between border studies and border theory, and between the study of borders as things and as ideas. The focus on the territoriality of borders, analyzed as dynamic social-spatial formations, is proposed as a meeting point between the two approaches. On this premise, this article examines some key elements in contemporary ethnographic research on borders in Southeastern Europe.

Durkheim and the Sociality of Space

This chapter explores the topic of space in Émile Durkheim’s writings. It shows that spatial formations play a key role in his theory of modernity. He assigns to social morphology the task of systematically investigating the material substratum of societies. Of major concern in this regard is how different types of societies relate to space in distinctive ways. His sociological approach encompasses both an epistemological and a social-theoretic perspective on “space.” In effect, it can be argued that Durkheim is not primarily concerned with a society’s dependence on space, but rather with how space is shaped socially. Space is not an abstract category of thought, but the collectively produced foundation for all social activity. Contrary to many subsequent conceptions of space, Durkheim does not differentiate between physical and social space, arguing that physical space is inherently shaped by social practices of classification and division. It is this theoretical notion which, in light of the renewed attention given to materiality and space by proponents of the material and the spatial turn, makes his work seem surprisingly contemporary.

The Interaction of Possible Worlds through the Prism of Cognitive Narratology

The article deals with the analysis of literary narrative where a possible unreal fictional world and a possible real fictional world usually coexist. When the norms of life plausibility are consciously violated, the real and the unreal possible worlds are emphatically opposed. Hence, their certain aspects are depicted in a fantastically exaggerated form. The interaction of possible worlds in a literary narrative destroys the stereotypes of the reader’s perception. It can occur in different planes: structural (a shift of plot elements of the story, transformation, unusual, sharp turns of the borrowed plot, violations of a plotline); fictional (a combination of real and fantastic features in one image); temporal (violations of the chronological flow of time, a shift of time flow); spatial (expansion or contraction of space, magical spatial formations, displacements, deformations). By their nature, the interaction of different possible worlds can be continuous, partial, and fragmentary; resulting from their boundaries may overlap or be violated (entirely or partially). The continuous interaction of different possible worlds, destruction of their borders, although they do not disappear completely, make them largely blurred, interpenetrating each other. In the case of partial interaction of possible worlds, their boundaries intersect. In the case of fragmentary interaction of possible worlds, their common points are slightly visible, for example, only the borrowed title of a literary work or a character’s name, or a fantastic concrete event or a place of the event.

‘Spatio-market practices’: conceptualising the always spatial dimensions of market making practices

Socio-material conceptualisations of markets suggest that they are spatial formations. Yet, the everyday practical and spatial dimensions of market making have received little explicit attention. We thus introduce the concept of spatio-market practices, drawing on key ideas in market studies and spatial theory. We argue that examining spatio-market practices (and thus the spatial dimensions of markets) promises to provide fresh insight regarding what it takes to realise markets, their uneven distribution, and what and whom markets are (and are not) designed to serve. To demonstrate what the concept calls for, supports and promises, we take Humphreys’ (2010) influential paper as a starting point and draw on other secondary sources in order to articulate an alternative and spatially-oriented account of the growth and legitimacy of the American casino gambling market. This paper, in turn, contributes a subtle and yet incisive shift in thinking, which supports a more explicit means of exploring markets as spatial formations.

The Interaction of Possible Worlds through the Prism of Cognitive Narratology

The article deals with the analysis of literary narrative where a possible unreal fictional world and a possible real fictional world usually coexist. When the norms of life plausibility are consciously violated, the real and the unreal possible worlds are emphatically opposed. Hence, their certain aspects are depicted in a fantastically exaggerated form. The interaction of possible worlds in a literary narrative destroys the stereotypes of the reader’s perception. It can occur in different planes: structural (a shift of plot elements of the story, transformation, unusual, sharp turns of the borrowed plot, violations of a plotline); fictional (a combination of real and fantastic features in one image); temporal (violations of the chronological flow of time, a shift of time flow); spatial (expansion or contraction of space, magical spatial formations, displacements, deformations). By their nature, the interaction of different possible worlds can be continuous, partial, and fragmentary; resulting from their boundaries may overlap or be violated (entirely or partially). The continuous interaction of different possible worlds, destruction of their borders, although they do not disappear completely, make them largely blurred, interpenetrating each other. In the case of partial interaction of possible worlds, their boundaries intersect. In the case of fragmentary interaction of possible worlds, their common points are slightly visible, for example, only the borrowed title of a literary work or a character’s name, or a fantastic concrete event or a place of the event.

State policy in relation to cities and regions with mono-specialization: experience and priorities

The monograph analyzes the policy in relation to cities and regions with monospecialization as one of the priority directions of state policy. The article considers the specifics of single-industry cities and regions as socio-political phenomena and objects of state regulation. The main principles, directions, mechanisms and tools for the implementation of state policy in relation to single-profile spatial formations are studied. Special attention is paid to the political and comparative analysis of foreign and domestic experience in the formation and implementation of this direction of state policy, as well as to identifying the degree of applicability of its main models in modern conditions. For specialists in the field of political science and related sciences, as well as anyone interested in this issue in its theoretical and applied dimensions.

Collective states and their transitions in football

Movement, positioning and coordination of player formations is a key aspect for the performance of teams within field-based sports. The increased availability of player tracking data has given rise to numerous studies that focus on the relationship between simple descriptive statistics surrounding team formation and performance. While these existing approaches have provided a high-level a view of team-based spatial formations, there is limited research on the nature of collective movement across players within teams and the establishment of stable collective states within game play. This study draws inspiration from the analysis of collective movement in nature, such as that observed within schools of fish and flocking birds, to explore the existence of collective states within the phases of play in soccer. Order parameters and metrics describing group motion and shape are derived from player movement tracks to uncover the nature of the team’s collective states and transitions. This represents a unique addition to the current body of work around the analysis of player movement in team sports. The results from this study demonstrate that sequences of ordered collective behaviours exist with relatively rapid transitions between highly aligned polar and un-ordered swarm behaviours (and vice-versa). Defensive phases of play have a higher proportion of ordered team movement than attacking phases, indicating that movements linked with attacking tactics, such as player dispersion to generate passing and shooting opportunities leads to lower overall collective order. Exploration within this study suggests that defensive tactics, such as reducing the depth or width to close passing opportunities, allows for higher team movement speeds and increased levels of collective order. This study provides a novel view of player movement by visualising the collective states present across the phases of play in football.

The Impact of the Main Infrastructure on the Effectiveness of Spatial and Economic Formations: Approaches to the Assessment

The problems of studying the role of the main infrastructure as the most important «framework» in the formation of the spatial structure of the country are considered and the main regularities of its influence on the systemic efficiency of spatial formations are substantiated. The methods of regional research, the issues of systemic balance of spatial development, numerical methods for assessing the emergence of spatial systems, the problems of development of territories and water areas of the Far Eastern Arctic, etc. are analyzed