On HIV assemblages, inequalities and subject formation

2021 ◽  
pp. 204382062110592
Author(s):  
Gavin Brown ◽  
Cesare Di Feliciantonio
Keyword(s):  
Subject Formation ◽  
Spatial Inequalities

Drawing on our situated experience as geographers of sexualities living and working in the Minority World, this response addresses some of the concerns raised by our interlocutors around the use of assemblage thinking, socio-spatial inequalities and subject formation.

scholarly journals National movement patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand: the unexplored role of neighbourhood deprivation

2021 ◽  
pp. jech-2020-216108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malcolm Campbell ◽  
Lukas Marek ◽  
Jesse Wiki ◽  
Matthew Hobbs ◽  
Clive E Sabel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Mobile Phone ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Policy Debate ◽  
Population Mobility ◽  
Neighbourhood Deprivation ◽  
Movement Data ◽  
Spatial Inequalities ◽  
The Impact

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has asked unprecedented questions of governments around the world. Policy responses have disrupted usual patterns of movement in society, locally and globally, with resultant impacts on national economies and human well-being. These interventions have primarily centred on enforcing lockdowns and introducing social distancing recommendations, leading to questions of trust and competency around the role of institutions and the administrative apparatus of state. This study demonstrates the unequal societal impacts in population movement during a national ‘lockdown’.MethodsWe use nationwide mobile phone movement data to quantify the effect of an enforced lockdown on population mobility by neighbourhood deprivation using an ecological study design. We then derive a mobility index using anonymised aggregated population counts for each neighbourhood (2253 Census Statistical Areas; mean population n=2086) of national hourly mobile phone location data (7.45 million records, 1 March 2020–20 July 2020) for New Zealand (NZ).ResultsCurtailing movement has highlighted and exacerbated underlying social and spatial inequalities. Our analysis reveals the unequal movements during ‘lockdown’ by neighbourhood socioeconomic status in NZ.ConclusionIn understanding inequalities in neighbourhood movements, we are contributing critical new evidence to the policy debate about the impact(s) and efficacy of national, regional or local lockdowns which have sparked such controversy.

scholarly journals (In)coherent subjects? The politics of conceptualising resistance in the UK asylum system

2021 ◽  
pp. 239965442110338
Author(s):  
Sarah M Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Political Action ◽  
Political Agency ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Sovereign Power ◽  
Subject Formation ◽  
Grounding Resistance ◽  
Migration Control ◽  
The Uk

Many accounts of resistance within systems of migration control pivot upon a coherent migrant subject, one that is imbued with political agency and posited as oppositional to particular forms of sovereign power. Drawing upon ethnographic research into the role of creativity within the UK asylum system, I argue that grounding resistance with a stable, coherent and agentic subject, aligns with oppositional narratives (of power vs resistance), and thereby risks negating the entangled politics of the (in)coherence of subject formation, and how this can contain the potential to disrupt, disturb or interrupt the practices and premise of the UK asylum system. I suggest that charity groups and subjects should not be written out of narratives of resistance apriori because they engage with ‘the state’: firstly, because to argue that there is a particular form that resistance should take is to place limits around what counts as the political; and secondly, because to ‘remain oppositional’ is at odds with an (in)coherent subject. I show how accounts which highlight a messy and ambiguous subjectivity, could be bought into understandings of resistance. This is important because as academics, we too participate in the delineation of the political and what counts as resistance. In predetermining what subjects, and forms of political action count as resistance we risk denying recognition to those within this system.

scholarly journals The smart grid as a security device: Electricity infrastructure and urban governance in Kingston and Rio de Janeiro

Urban Studies ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 004209802098571
Author(s):  
Francesca Pilo’
Keyword(s):  
Smart Grid ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Smart Grids ◽  
Rio De Janeiro ◽  
Urban Governance ◽  
Spatial Inequality ◽  
Technical Failure ◽  
Spatial Inequalities ◽  
Urban Security ◽  
Security Device

This article aims to contribute to recent debates on the politics of smart grids by exploring their installation in low-income areas in Kingston (Jamaica) and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). To date, much of this debate has focused on forms of smart city experiments, mostly in the Global North, while less attention has been given to the implementation of smart grids in cities characterised by high levels of urban insecurity and socio-spatial inequality. This article illustrates how, in both contexts, the installation of smart metering is used as a security device that embeds the promise of protecting infrastructure and revenue and navigating complex relations framed along lines of socio-economic inequalities and urban sovereignty – here linked to configurations of state and non-state (criminal) territorial control and power. By unpacking the political workings of the smart grid within changing urban security contexts, including not only the rationalities that support its use but also the forms of resistance, contestation and socio-technical failure that emerge, the article argues for the importance of examining the conjunction between urban and infrastructural governance, including the reshaping of local power relations and spatial inequalities, through globally circulating devices.

Size matters: locality of residence and media use in later life

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Dennis Rosenberg ◽  
Galit Nimrod
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
Multivariate Technique ◽  
Spatial Inequalities ◽  
Spatial Differences

Abstract Various factors determine the use of media in later life. Nevertheless, spatial inequalities among older media users have been accorded little attention in academic research. This study aimed to explore differences in variety (number) and intensity (duration) of both traditional and new media use among older adults residing in various types of localities. Data were obtained from the second wave of the ACT (Ageing + Communication + Technology) cross-national survey, comprising 7,927 internet users aged 60 and over from seven countries. The statistical analyses used in the study were chi-square and analysis of variance tests, and linear regression as a multivariate technique. The results indicated that spatial differences concern variety of media use to a greater extent than its intensity, especially with regard to use of traditional media via new devices. Overall, residents of large cities exhibited greater variety and intensity of media use than did their counterparts from smaller localities, especially rural ones. These findings supported the social stratification hypothesis – according to which individuals from more-privileged social backgrounds have better media literacy, use media to a greater extent and benefit from its use more than people from disadvantaged groups. The findings should be considered by practitioners and policy makers.

scholarly journals Spatial Access Matters: An Analysis of Policy Change and Its Effects on Avoidable Infant Mortality in Portugal

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 1242
Author(s):  
Morgan Weiland ◽  
Paula Santana ◽  
Claudia Costa ◽  
Julia Doetsch ◽  
Eva Pilot
Keyword(s):  
Infant Mortality ◽  
Access To Care ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Policy Reform ◽  
Freedom Of Choice ◽  
Spatial Access ◽  
Spatial Inequalities ◽  
Organization Of Care ◽  
Maternal And Neonatal Health ◽  
Quantitative Spatial Analysis

In 2006, a policy reform restructured the maternal and perinatal healthcare system, including closing smaller maternity units, to further improve care in Portugal. This study aimed to investigate the effects of the 2006 National Program of Maternal and Neonatal Health policy on spatial inequalities in access to care and consequently avoidable infant mortality. A thematic analysis of qualitative data including interviews and surveys and a quantitative spatial analysis using Geographic Information Systems was applied. Spatial inequalities were found which may lead to avoidable infant mortality. Inequalities exist in freedom of choice and autonomy in care, within a medicalized system. Changes in approach to and organization of care would further enhance equitable spatial access to care in maternal health and reduce avoidable infant mortality.

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