scholarly journals Innovation in the ‘New Normal’ Interactions, the Urban Space, and the Low Touch Economy: The Case of Rio de Janeiro in the Context of the COVID-19 pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 17
Author(s):  
Diego Santos Vieira de Jesus ◽  
Daniel Kamlot ◽  
Veranise Jacubowski Correia Dubeux

The aim of this paper is to examine how innovation was implemented in the city of Rio de Janeiro, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, regarding the “new normal” interactions, the urban space and the low touch economy. The main argument indicates that the use of new information and communication technologies to interact with others allowed people to develop social and emotional ties in the light of health precautions. Although many of these precautions were ignored by people using the urban space, some people made new uses of the open natural spaces in Rio de Janeiro to release anxiety and depressive feelings, but the city still faces problems regarding the privatization of public spaces. In the light of the development of the low touch economy, innovation was necessary for many companies to overcome obstacles such as broken relationships with customers, the instant drop in demand, the constraints in supply and production, the political instability and the cash-flow/financial constraints. These solutions included the improvement of the logistic process and alternative branding, the switch to a similar but digital/remote service and the creation of products for other needs of the existing clients.

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-129

This paper examines the globalization and cosmopolitanism of digital leisure networks through the metaphor of urban parks within global cities. It makes the case for a more inclusive ecology of public leisure space by dismantling conventional boundaries between the park and the city. The article uses the metaphor of global cities to emphasize the hierarchies in digital leisure networks. These global cities function as command centers and as magnets for workers in the industrial, creative, and leisure fields. They also attract privileged groups as well as temporary and migrant laborers. Similarly, not all social networking sites share the same power and influence. While new information and communication technologies are eroding the boundaries between reality and fantasy, the real and the virtual, we should not forget that many of the world’s inhabitants reside in a pre-digital world and constitute an invisible community that has somehow slipped past the database that seemed to be omnipresent. Poverty, rural conditions, criminality, and perversion are accorded scant attention within the larger discourse on globalization through the internet and its leisure counterpart, the recreational social networks. In terms of the metaphor, this neglect would be much like studying cities without noting the vast slums in which as many as half of their inhabitants live, work and play. This paper offers a dialectical and metaphorical journey in order to make conceptualization of the city and the park, leisure and labor, and the virtual and the material richer by encompassing more of the marginal and the diverse.


2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 229-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey L. Kidder

Parkour is a new sport based on athletically and artistically overcoming urban obstacles. In this paper, I argue that the real world practices of parkour are dialectically intertwined with the virtual worlds made possible by information and communication technologies. My analysis of parkour underscores how globalized ideas and images available through the Internet and other media can be put into practice within specific locales. Practitioners of parkour, therefore, engage their immediate, physical world at the same time that they draw upon an imagination enabled by their on–screen lives. As such, urban researchers need to consider the ways that virtual worlds can change and enhance how individuals understand and utilize the material spaces of the city.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Weihua He

Shortly after hosting the Seventh CISM Military World Games, the city of Wuhan was hit by Covid-19, and thus became a centre of global attention. To protect the life and health of the people in Wuhan, China declared an all-out war to contain the virus. Using drastic measures that exacted high socio-economic costs, Wuhan was gradually restored to peace, vitality, and prosperity. In a city under lockdown, coordination, management, and governance at different levels were facilitated by information and communication technologies. This article examines the enhanced capabilities of individuals and institutions in a digital age to respond to crises, and the debates and ideological entanglements relating to the virus. It concludes with an anticipation of the ‘New Normal’ after the pandemic by responding to Giorgio Agamben’s views on the ‘state of exception’.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 11-18
Author(s):  
Valentina Volpi ◽  
Mauro Palatucci ◽  
Giuseppe Marinelli de Marco

The widespread of Information and Communication Technologies and the consequently redefinition of roles in the usage and management of the city brought along new systems of relationships and interactions that produce an auto-organisation of territories or communities, showed also through temporary transformation of the environment. In effect, cities are continuously redefined by emergent properties that may, both be originated and then impact on social, political, cultural, and economical people practices. On the other hand, through the arrangement of its patterns the city shapes the social and connective relations occurring among people. So, the city can be regarded as a complex system, that in the last years has been expanded by the widespread of communication devices and sensors connected to the Internet. In this context, the design of new patterns of interactions that focuses on the new relationship opportunities, in part offered by the Information and Communication Technologies, but not limited to them, may significantly affect sustainable processes of urban development. This paper focuses on the civic aspect of the so-called smart cities, and, in details, on the relation between citizens and Public Administration. Some existing interaction patterns are illustrated in order to support the visualisation of the dynamic relationships between citizens and Public Administration, while new possible relations derived by the interaction with the urban space are supposed.


2020 ◽  
pp. 120633122091067
Author(s):  
Aslı Ulubaş Hamurcu ◽  
Fatih Terzi

In the Information Age, it is becoming crucial to understand the socio-technological factors and their possible outcomes so as to fulfill the upcoming spatial needs of the society. Thus, it is aimed to put forward how socio-spatiality is changing along with the developments in new information and communication technologies (nICTs) in the twenty-first century, and how socio-technological factors are affecting urban space in terms of the formation of new urban functions/uses or spaces that will habit/suit/house these dynamics within the city. The outcome of the study shows that there are three phases by which urban (public) space is expected to change according to the impact of socio-technological factors.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 2307
Author(s):  
Rosa Anaya-Aguilar ◽  
German Gemar ◽  
Carmen Anaya-Aguilar

Health tourism is booming all over the world, and thermal spa tourism in Spain is a type of tourism aimed at integrating with nature, achieving sustainable development. In general, its facilities are located in areas specially protected by environmental legislation. This tourism sector attracts an increasingly wide market segment that has become more demanding and better informed and that more frequently uses the Internet to gather information. Tourists’ shopping and consumption habits are increasingly influenced by new information and communication technologies (ICTs), making these a topic of interest among academics and professionals. Website development has been shown to be an area of innovation for spa facilities, but evidence has also been found that this sector has experienced difficulty in adopting ICTs. This research sought to analyse spa websites’ usability by conducting an exploratory investigation of different websites’ contents. The results reveal that the use of new web technologies by spas is underdeveloped, although these facilities have achieved good positions in Internet search engines due to the synergistic effect of the official tourism websites. That is why most of them tell their story, detail their nature and the protection of their spaces. In this way, spas turn their websites into communication channels that convey to tourists their commitment to the environment and sustainable development.


2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 568-598 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Macchi ◽  
Adolfo Crespo Márquez ◽  
Maria Holgado ◽  
Luca Fumagalli ◽  
Luis Barberá Martínez

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a methodology for the engineering of E-maintenance platforms that is based on a value-driven approach. Design/methodology/approach – The methodology assumes that a value-driven engineering approach would help foster technological innovation for maintenance management. Indeed, value-driven engineering could be easily adopted at the business level, with subsequent positive effects on the industrial applications of new information and communication technologies solutions. Findings – The methodology combines a value-driven approach with the engineering in the maintenance scope. The methodology is tested in a manufacturing case to prove its potential to support the engineering of E-maintenance solutions. In particular, the case study concerns the investment in E-maintenance solutions developed in the framework of a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system originally implemented for production purposes. Originality/value – Based on literature research, the paper presents a methodology that is implemented considering three different approaches (business theories, value-driven engineering and maintenance management). The combination of these approaches is novel and overcomes the traditional view of maintenance as an issue evaluated from a cost-benefit perspective.


2020 ◽  
Vol XIII (XIII) ◽  
pp. 72-77
Author(s):  
L.D. KRIVYKH ◽  
◽  
O.B. BAGRINTSEVA ◽  

The article deals with the application of new technologies in teaching foreign languages. Substantiates the importance of the development of other forms and methods of teaching English to students of information technology disciplines. As well as drawing attention to the use of new information and communication technologies of the Internet. The article includes examples of the use of podcasts in the development of listening skills. The article is written for foreign language teachers, all interested in the methodology of teaching foreign languages, based on new technologies.


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