Tweets of surveillance: Traffic, Twitter, and securitization in Beirut, Lebanon

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 322-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin V. Monroe
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Traffic Management ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Physical Space ◽  
The State ◽  
Media Technology ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Neoliberal Governmentality ◽  
Spatial Dimensions ◽  
Twitter Account

More than a decade ago, Akhil Gupta and James Ferguson set out to define a research program with their essay ‘Spatializing States: Toward an Ethnography of Neoliberal Governmentality’ (2002). Exploring the relation between what they referred to as ‘the spatial and statist orders,’ they argued that conceptualizations of the nature of the state have not attended adequately to the ways in which states are spatialized and endeavored to show, through ethnography, how people come to experience the state as an entity with certain spatial characteristics and properties. Building on these ideas, but also moving beyond their taken-for-granted assumptions about the state’s spatiality, this essay makes use of one ethnographic case example in an effort to offer a fine-grained illustration of the spatial dimensions of the project of state securitization in the urban landscape. I do this by looking closely at the field of urban mobility in Beirut, Lebanon, and the Twitter account for the city’s Traffic Management Center, launched in late 2013 by the Ministry of Interior. Through my analysis of the spatial modes of statecraft that are produced through this Twitter account, I develop an argument about how the social media technology of Twitter serves as a portal through which to view how the state secures its legitimacy and naturalizes its authority in both virtual and physical space, while, at the same time, this technology – if only fleetingly – can be harnessed to issue challenges to this legitimacy and authority. What is at stake in the Traffic Management Center’s Twitter account, I suggest, is the production of the state as an entity that is not just powerful in the sense of being vertical to society and encompassing of urban space, but the very idea that the state offers security and protection to its citizens.

scholarly journals Self-organization in planned Danwei and Dayuan: A case study of the transitional Houzaimen neighborhood of Nanjing in urban China

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qian Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
City Planning ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Active Agent ◽  
Physical Space ◽  
Urban China ◽  
Self Organization

In the network of global economy, urban places as the spatial effect of globalization that results from the negotiation between international capitals and local powers play an important role in globalization discourse. The transformation of urban form also responses to the entrepreneurial turn in the municipal governance that affects city planning in particular. The role of municipal governments due to global economic competitions shifts from a passive regulation operator to an active agent to increase attractiveness for local investments and fiscal incomes. Danwei as ‘the space of the socialist work unit’ and its residential compound Dayuan referring ‘a large courtyard’ in Chinese term have shaped the urban landscape and everyday life since Maoist China. The unitary urban space that emerged under a command economy favoring the governmental intervention has varied over time. Many Dayuan neighborhoods have diminished in urban renewal movements. As the study object, Houzaimen neighborhood of Nanjing has the well-reserved Dayuan fabric built before 1990. Most researches emphasize the top-down planning process that results in social and physical space while this article underlines self-organized community. By methods of site surveys and space syntax for site analysis, the identifiable pattern of self-organization including the social buildup and the subculture of residents, residential ownerships and the allocation of commercial activities compared to public institutions and facilities on site reveals the place-shaping mechanism.

Emplacing Berlin: Digital Itineraries and Short-term Study Abroad in the City

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard B. Apgar
Keyword(s):  
Study Abroad ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Physical Space ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Study Abroad Programs ◽  
Term Study ◽  
Digital Maps ◽  
Short Term Study ◽  
The City

As destination of choice for many short-term study abroad programs, Berlin offers students of German language, culture and history a number of sites richly layered with significance. The complexities of these sites and the competing narratives that surround them are difficult for students to grasp in a condensed period of time. Using approaches from the spatial humanities, this article offers a case study for enhancing student learning through the creation of digital maps and itineraries in a campus-based course for subsequent use during a three-week program in Berlin. In particular, the concept of deep mapping is discussed as a means of augmenting understanding of the city and its history from a narrative across time to a narrative across the physical space of the city. As itineraries, these course-based projects were replicated on site. In moving from the digital environment to the urban landscape, this article concludes by noting meanings uncovered and narratives formed as we moved through the physical space of the city.

Nation Branding:

MedienJournal ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Gisela K. Cánepa
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
The State ◽  
Nation Branding ◽  
Great Opportunity ◽  
National Community ◽  
Neoliberal Governmentality ◽  
Entrepreneurial Spirit

Nation branding plays a central role within neoliberal governmentality, operating as a technology of power in the configuration of emerging cultural and political formations such as national identity, citizenship and the state. The discussion of the advertising spot Perú, Nebraska  released as part of the Nation Branding campaign Marca Perú  in May of 2011, constitutes a great opportunity to: (i) argue about the way in which audiovisual advertisement products, designed as performative devises, operate as technologies of power; and (ii) problematize the terms in which it founds a new social contract for the Peruvian multicultural national community. This analysis will allow me to approach neoliberalism as a cultural regime in order to discuss the ideological nature of the uncontested celebratory discourse that has emerged in Perú and which explains the economic growth of the last decades as the outcome of a national entrepreneurial spirit that would be distinctive of Peruvian cultural identity.

scholarly journals Acts of the State and Representation in Edith Stein

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-45
Author(s):  
Hamid Taieb
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
The State ◽  
Edith Stein ◽  
Application Of Law ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Social Acts

AbstractThis paper discusses the thesis defended by Edith Stein that certain acts can be attributed to the State. According to Stein, the State is a social structure characterized by sovereignty. As such, it is responsible for the production, interpretation, and application of law. These tasks require the performance of acts, most of which are what Stein calls “social acts” like enactments and orders. For Stein, the acts in question are made by the organs of the State, but in the name of the State, and are thus attributed to the State via a relation of representation. In the first section, the paper presents Stein’s thesis that the sovereignty of the State entails a series of legal prerogatives, which in turn result in various social acts being ascribed to the State through its representatives. In the second section, the paper critically discusses Stein’s views, notably her theory of representation, and her account of the nature of the State, while emphasizing its most interesting aspects, namely, its fine-grained analyses of the various acts that are attributed to the State.

scholarly journals Representation Learning for Fine-Grained Change Detection

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (13) ◽  
pp. 4486
Author(s):  
Niall O’Mahony ◽  
Sean Campbell ◽  
Lenka Krpalkova ◽  
Anderson Carvalho ◽  
Joseph Walsh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Deep Learning ◽  
Change Detection ◽  
Model Calibration ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Representation Learning ◽  
Machine Intelligence ◽  
The State ◽  
Sensor Data ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Learning Techniques

Fine-grained change detection in sensor data is very challenging for artificial intelligence though it is critically important in practice. It is the process of identifying differences in the state of an object or phenomenon where the differences are class-specific and are difficult to generalise. As a result, many recent technologies that leverage big data and deep learning struggle with this task. This review focuses on the state-of-the-art methods, applications, and challenges of representation learning for fine-grained change detection. Our research focuses on methods of harnessing the latent metric space of representation learning techniques as an interim output for hybrid human-machine intelligence. We review methods for transforming and projecting embedding space such that significant changes can be communicated more effectively and a more comprehensive interpretation of underlying relationships in sensor data is facilitated. We conduct this research in our work towards developing a method for aligning the axes of latent embedding space with meaningful real-world metrics so that the reasoning behind the detection of change in relation to past observations may be revealed and adjusted. This is an important topic in many fields concerned with producing more meaningful and explainable outputs from deep learning and also for providing means for knowledge injection and model calibration in order to maintain user confidence.

scholarly journals Planning for a neighborhood and city-scale green network system in Qatar: the case of MIA Park

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raffaello Furlan ◽  
Brian R. Sinclair
Keyword(s):  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Landscape Fragmentation ◽  
The State ◽  
Network System ◽  
Design Strategies ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Main Mode ◽  
The Past ◽  
Neighborhood Scale

AbstractIn the past decade, Doha has witnessed fast-urban growth, an increased population rate, and an over-reliance on the automobile as the main mode of urban transportation. These factors caused social and environmental problems related to (1) the loss of a compact urban pattern, (2) an increased level of air pollution (3) high traffic congestions and (4) increasing landscape fragmentation. In consideration of such concerns, The State of Qatar invested large funds into the urban landscape development of Doha, as envisioned by Qatar National Vision 2030. As a result, in the past five years various parks and/or green areas, such MIA Park, a major public green space located around the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA), were planned and developed within metropolitan Doha. The authors argue that this park is currently facing issues and challenges related to (1) accessibility to/from the neighboring districts, and (2) connectivity to/from the neighboring parks. Therefore, this research study aims at assessing the existing conditions of MIA Park, at considering the broader city context and, at recommending strategies for implementing MIA Park’s green network system. It approached the investigative challenge using a multi-pronged comprehensive methodology, that deployed focus groups, semi-structured interviews and a comprehensive network analysis based on graph theory. The findings, revealed through these hybrid research tactics, allowed the researchers to generate a framework to enhance accessibility and connectivity of MIA Park through a green network system, planned at inter-related neighborhood-scale and city-scale levels. While the research examines most notably a single case, it is advocated that the proposed framework represents not just an optional feature pertaining to the case in Doha, but a valuable reference for the sustainable master planning of future cities in the State of Qatar and across the GCC. The paper proffers numerous key contributions, including the critical exploration of manufactured landscapes in Doha Qatar and the delineation of broadly applicable environmental design strategies to improve the fabric and livability of cities.

Behind the Web Store: The Organisational and Spatial Evolution of Multichannel Retailing in Toronto

10.1068/a3562 ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 34 (8) ◽  
pp. 1411-1441 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Currah
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Economic Geography ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Commodity Chain ◽  
Multichannel Retailing ◽  
Business To Consumer ◽  
Economic Landscape ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Web

In this paper I address two issues of general relevance to contemporary debates in economic geography: first, the organisational and spatial implications of new information technologies for the economic landscape; and, second, the enduring role of place to digital capitalism. Specifically, I examine the organisational evolution of multichannel retailing in Toronto from a geographical perspective. Bricks-and-mortar retailers are increasingly pursuing a multichannel strategy by operating an Internet-based web store alongside the existing network of physical retail outlets. I therefore evaluate the organisational implications of the adoption of business-to-consumer e-commerce (e-tailing) technology for six Canadian bricks-and-mortar retailers based in Toronto and assess how the associated changes in business structure have been inscribed upon the urban landscape. The argument is developed in three sections. First, I discuss how the formula for competitive advantage in the new (r)etail markets of the developed world has shifted from a pure play to a multichannel organisational paradigm. Second, I provide a background to the development of Canadian e-commerce and an overview of the empirical methodologies employed during the research. Third, the focus of the paper moves ‘behind the web store’ to spatialise the physical places that constitute the fulfilment infrastructure of e-tailing as sequentially linked stages in Internet commodity chains. I evaluate the impact of the Internet commodity chain upon the geographical organisation of each retailer, and, in particular, consider whether the unique logistical requirements of e-tailing have stimulated spatial processes of disintermediation and reintermediation. It is argued that, when read through the lens of Toronto, e-tailing has incurred limited organisational disruption and is characterised by a distinctive geography of integration between online and offline retailing services within the urban space of the city. I conclude the paper by contextualising the findings within themes for conceptual debate in economic geography.

scholarly journals A escola invade as ruas: passeatas cívicas dos grupos escolares sergipanos. Civismo e patriotismo no espaço urbano

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 229
Author(s):  
Degenal De Jesus da Silva
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
The State ◽  
Time Interval ◽  
Norbert Elias ◽  
First Republic ◽  
New Look

Este artigo apresenta a pesquisa sobre as festas cívicas realizadas nas ruas de Sergipe, entre 1923 e 1930. Nesse intervalo temporal, aconteceu algo inusitado, e os historiadores sergipanos não se debruçaram a estudar: o declínio das comemorações republicanas nas ruas. Este estudo ganha relevância, principalmente, porque se sucedeu no governo de Graccho Cardoso a presidente do estado, considerado pela historiografia sergipana como um governante desenvolvimentista, especialmente, na área da educação. Assim, o objetivo é examinar o percurso das festividades, tentando perceber os indícios deixados nas fontes sobre as formas de participação de indivíduos e instituições envolvidos nesses momentos de celebração; e, as representações utilizadas naquele momento histórico. Para tanto, utilizamos diversos documentos para que pudéssemos cruzar as informações, com o intuito de podermos lançar um novo olhar sobre esse período. Dessa forma, utilizamos os conceitos de Representações, de Roger Chartier; de indivíduos, de Norbert Elias; e do paradigma indiciário, de Carlo Ginzburg.The school invade streets: parades civic of the sergipeans groups school. Civility and patriotism in urban space. Article search civic parties in Sergipe held in the streets, between 1923-1930. In this time interval, there was something unusual, and that the Sergipeans historians pored studying: the decline of republican celebrations in the streets. This study becomes relevant, especially because this fact began under President Cardoso Graccho the President of the State, considered by sergipana historiography as a developmentalist - and especially in education. The objective is to examine the course of the festivities, trying to understand the clues left in the sources of the forms of participation; individuals and institutions involved in these moments of celebration; and the representations used in that historic moment. Therefore, we use various documents so that we could cross the information, In order that we can launch a new look at this period. Thus, we used the concepts: Representations of Roger Chartier; individuals of Norbert Elias and the indiciary paradigm of Carlo Ginzburg. Keywords: Civic Parties; First Republic; Representations.

scholarly journals Raumaneignungen, Regeln und Profite in Dhakas Feld des Straßenhandels – Sozialgeographische Erklärungsversuche auf Grundlage von Bourdieus Theorie der Praxis

2014 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Etzold
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Physical Space ◽  
Social Geography ◽  
The State ◽  
Street Vendors ◽  
Street Vending ◽  
Theory Of Practice ◽  
Urban South ◽  
Spatial Appropriation

Abstract. The paper discusses street vendors' spatial appropriations and the governance of public space in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. The much debated question in social geography how people's position in social space relates to their position in physical space (and vice versa) stands at the centre of the analysis. I use Bourdieu's Theory of Practice to discuss this dialectic relation at two analytical levels. On a micro-political level it is shown that the street vendors' social positions and the informal rules of the street structure their access to public space and thus determine their "spatial profits". At a macro-political level, it is not only the conditions inside the "field of street vending" that matter for the hawkers, but also their relation to the state-controlled "field of power". The paper demonstrates that Bourdieu's key ideas can be linked to current debates about spatial appropriation and informality. Moreover, I argue that Bourdieu's theory builds an appropriate basis for a relational, critical, and reflexive social geography in the Urban South.

scholarly journals The position of Green Space in Improving Beauty and Quality of sustainable Space of City

2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (SE) ◽  
pp. 269-276
Author(s):  
Mina Bakhshi
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Green Space ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Motor Vehicles ◽  
Critical Conditions ◽  
Sustainable City ◽  
Dynamic Relationship ◽  
Environmental Instability

The ever-increasing growth of urbanization, irregular population growth, multiplicity of motor vehicles, extra use of fossil energies, expansion of constructed buildings and separation of cities from the nature, as well as the environmental instability and problems, urban views are changing from valuable ecological areas into disconnected, inefficient areas in a way that every day the nature trace gets weaker and weaker. One of the conditions of making desired urban spaces is to connect urban spaces with the nature. It seems necessary to present some ideas for strengthening this connection and directing the cities towards getting as dynamic as possible. The methods compatible with nature include green roof, green walls and green corridors designs which make a kind of dynamic relationship between cold, spiritless urban frameworks and natural frames. They are of great importance in prompting urban space quality not only as an aesthetic element but also as a vital one in air pollution critical conditions. On the other hand, the importance of green space as one of the dimensions of urban landscape is in a degree that it improves the quality and beauty of sustainable city. Therefore, the green space can be considered as one of the significant areas in the quality of urban spaces. The main aim of the present study is improving the quality and aesthetic of urban space and sustainable city through green space. This has a great help in achieving applied principles in the sustainable city landscape design. The methodology is descriptive-analytical utilizing library search, sources books, and textbooks reviewing.

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