scholarly journals The Commodification of Public Spaces on Khao San Road

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 81-96
Author(s):  
Parisa Musigakama

This study focuses on the mechanisms and institutions for the governance of public spaces on Khao San Road, Bangkok. Khao San is a small road famous for tourism. It is located near major attractions, and is full of budget accommodations and street vendors. This street is known among the locals and foreign tourists as one of Bangkok’s most vibrant and lively. Furthermore, Khao San offers immense opportunity for vendors, as it is crowded with tourists all day. This factor is of utmost importance to the success of businesses. Therefore, competitions for prime vending spots on the road have been going on for years. Under these circumstances, public spaces are transformed into private goods that can be traded, transferred and deprived in reality. With the qualitative method of grounded theory, this paper reveals the process of Khao San Road’s commodification as well as the mechanisms and institutions involved in the process. Qualitative data collected using three methods: non-participant observations, in-depth interviews, and document studies were triangulated and analysed. The findings suggest that both external and internal mechanisms have stimulated the commodification of public spaces on Khao San Road over the past decades. The external mechanisms are tourism and multinational capitalist economy. The internal mechanism relates to community norms on the de facto individual rights over public spaces. These mechanisms have developed unofficial rules to work at an operational level with official rules supervised by officials. A critical outcome of these mechanisms and rules is the determination of the right to access and use public spaces by various groups of stakeholders. In conclusion, the paper discusses the relationship between the commodification of public spaces and the inequality problem. Public spaces as private goods are not different from other private possessions that can be excluded through price, authority, and policy mechanisms. Collaboration between mechanisms has resulted in only a small number of people having the opportunity to indeed access and utilise the resources on the street. People whose opportunity is denied need to bring themselves into the patronage system to ensure the survival of their businesses.

1949 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 259-262
Author(s):  
J. F. Morley

Abstract These experiments indicate that softeners can influence abrasion resistance, as measured by laboratory machines, in some manner other than by altering the stress-strain properties of the rubber. One possible explanation is that the softener acts as a lubricant to the abrasive surface. Since this surface, in laboratory abrasion-testing machines, is relatively small, and comes repeatedly into contact with the rubber under test, it seems possible that it may become coated with a thin layer of softener that reduces its abrasive power. It would be interesting in this connection to try an abrasive machine in which a long continuous strip of abrasive material was used, no part of it being used more than once, so as to eliminate or minimize this lubricating effect. The fact that the effect of the softener is more pronounced on the du Pont than on the Akron-Croydon machine lends support to the lubrication hypothesis, because on the former machine the rate of wear per unit area of abrasive is much greater. Thus in the present tests the volume of rubber abraded per hr. per sq. cm. of abrasive surface ranges from 0.03 to 0.11 cc. on the du Pont machine and from 0.0035 to 0.0045 cc. on the Akron-Croydon machine. On the other hand, if the softener acts as a lubricant, it would be expected to reduce considerably the friction between the abrasive and the rubber and hence the energy used in dragging the rubber over the abrasive surface. The energy figures given in the right-hand columns of Tables 1 and 3, however, show that there is relatively little variation between the different rubbers. As a test of the lubrication hypothesis, it would be of interest to vary the conditions of test so that approximately the same amount of rubber per unit area of abrasive is abraded in a given time on both machines; this should show whether the phenomena observed under the present test conditions are due solely to the difference in rate of wear or to an inherent difference in the type of wear on the two machines. This could most conveniently be done by considerably reducing the load on the du Pont machine. In the original work on this machine the load was standardized at 8 pounds, but no figures are quoted to show how abrasion loss varies with the load. As an addition to the present investigation, it is proposed to examine the effect of this variation with special reference to rubbers containing various amounts and types of softener. Published data on the influence of softeners on the road wear of tire rubbers do not indicate anything like such large effects as are shown by the du Pont machine. This throws some doubt on the value of this machine for testing tire tread rubbers, a conclusion which is confirmed by information obtained from other workers.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1566
Author(s):  
Rong-Chang Jou ◽  
Ming-Che Chao

Introduction—Medical emergency vehicles help patients get to the hospital quickly. However, there were more and more ambulance crashes on the road in Taiwan during the last decade. This study investigated the characteristics of medical emergency vehicle crashes in Taiwan from January 2003 to December 2016. Methods—The ordered logit (OL) model, multinominal logit (MNL) model, and partial proportional odds (PPO) model were applied to investigate the relationship between the severity of ambulance crash injuries and its risk factors. Results—We found the various factors have different effects on the overall severity of ambulance crashes, such as ambulance drivers’ characteristics and road and weather conditions. When another car was involved in ambulance crashes, there was a disproportionate effect on the different overall severity, as found by the PPO model. Conclusions—The results showed that male ambulance drivers and car drivers who failed to yield to an ambulance had a higher risk of severe injury from ambulance crashes. Ambulance crashes are an emerging issue and need further policies and public education regarding Taiwan’s ambulance transportation safety.


2021 ◽  
pp. 107-110
Author(s):  
О.О. Марокко

В статье рассматриваются некоторые социально-психологические аспекты повышения эффективности социальной рекламы в области безопасности дорожного движения. Автором отмечено, что для достижения цели субъект пропаганды дол- жен осознать взаимосвязь между его индивидуальным поведением на дороге и надежностью всей системы жизнеобеспечения. The article discuses some of the socio-psychological aspects of increasing of social advertising in the field of road safety. The author notes that in order to achieve the goal, the subject of propaganda must aware of the relationship between his individual behavior on the road and the reliability of the entire life support system.


2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 432-439
Author(s):  
Melville Saayman ◽  
Waldo Krugell ◽  
Andrea Saayman

The Cape Argus Pick n Pay Cycle Tour is a major event on the road cycling calendar. The majority of cyclists travel significant distances and participation produces a substantial carbon footprint. This paper examines participants’ willingness to pay to offset their carbon footprint. The purpose of this paper is to make a contribution to the literature by linking willingness to pay to attitudes towards or beliefs (green views) about the initiatives in place, to ensure a greener cycle tour. Factor analysis is used to identify different types of cyclists, based on their green views: those with green money, those who prefer green products and the “re-cyclers”. The results of the regression analysis reveal that socio-demographic variables and the right attitude towards the environment are significant predictors of stated willingness to pay for climate change mitigation.


2018 ◽  
pp. 235-253
Author(s):  
Renato Coimbra Frias

RESUMOO presente trabalho discute a relação existente entre sons, política e espaços públicos. Tal discussão é conduzida pela análise dos dados obtidos em um trabalho de campo realizado no Largo da Carioca, Rio de Janeiro, que consistiu no mapeamento das diferentes atividades que ocupam esse espaço público e no registro em áudio dos sons ao longo de uma caminhada pelo Largo da Carioca. A análise evidencia como o som produzido por camelôs, artistas de rua e outras atividades observadas em campo exerce um importante papel no jogo de posições entre elas, configurando-se como importante fator na geografia política dos espaços públicos.Palavras-chave: Espaços Públicos, Caminhadas Sonoras, Paisagens Sonoras. ABSTRACTThis paper discusses the relationship between sounds, politics and public spaces. This discussion is conducted by the analysis of data obtained in a fieldwork in Largo da Carioca, Rio de Janeiro, which consisted in mapping the different activities that occupy this public space and in the audio recording of the sounds present on a walk along the Largo da Carioca. Our analysis shows how the sound produced by street vendors, street performers and other activities observed in field plays an important role in the positions established between them, becoming an important factor in the political geography of public spaces.Keywords: Public Spaces, Soundwalks, Paisagens Sonoras.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. A45-A45
Author(s):  
J Leota ◽  
D Hoffman ◽  
L Mascaro ◽  
M Czeisler ◽  
K Nash ◽  
...  

Abstract Introduction Home court advantage (HCA) in the National Basketball Association (NBA) is well-documented, yet the co-occurring drivers responsible for this advantage have proven difficult to examine in isolation. The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic resulted in the elimination of crowds in ~50% of games during the 2020/2021 NBA season, whereas travel remained unchanged. Using this ‘natural experiment’, we investigated the impact of crowds and travel-related sleep and circadian disruption on NBA HCA. Methods 1080 games from the 2020/2021 NBA regular season were analyzed using mixed models (fixed effects: crowds, travel; random effects: team, opponent). Results In games with crowds, home teams won 58.65% of the time and outrebounded (M=2.28) and outscored (M=2.18) their opponents. In games without crowds, home teams won significantly less (50.60%, p = .01) and were outrebounded (M=-0.41, p < .001) and outscored (M=-0.13, p < .05) by their opponents. Further, the increase in home rebound margin fully mediated the relationship between crowds and home points margin (p < .001). No significant sleep or circadian effects were observed. Discussion Taken together, these results suggest that HCA in the 2020/2021 NBA season was predominately driven by the presence of crowds and their influence on the effort exerted by the home team to rebound the ball. Moreover, we speculate that the strict NBA COVID-19 policies may have mitigated the travel-related sleep and circadian effects on the road team. These findings are of considerable significance to a domain wherein marginal gains can have immense competitive, financial, and even historical consequences.


2011 ◽  
Vol 105-107 ◽  
pp. 267-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sung Wook Hwang ◽  
Jin Hyuk Han ◽  
Ki Duck Sung ◽  
Sang Kwon Lee

Tire noise is classified by pattern noise and road noise in a vehicle. Especially pattern noise has impulsive characteristics since it is generated by impacting of tire’s block on the road. Therefore, a special signal process is needed other than traditional Fourier Transform, because the characteristic of signal is varying with time. On the other hand, the pattern noise is a kind of non-stationary signal and is related to the impulsive train of pitch sequence of a block. In this paper, Wavelet Transform is applied to verify the impulse signal caused by impact of block and groove and to verify the relationship between the pattern noise and the train of pitch sequence.


Author(s):  
Peter Kolozi

Post World War II conservative thinking witnessed a marked shift in criticism away from capitalism itself and to the state. Cold War conservatives’ anti-communism led many on the right to perceive economic systems in stark terms as either purely capitalistic or on the road to communism.


Author(s):  
Patrick R Lawler ◽  
Deepak L Bhatt ◽  
Lucas C Godoy ◽  
Thomas F Lüscher ◽  
Robert O Bonow ◽  
...  

Abstract Systemic vascular inflammation plays multiple maladaptive roles which contribute to the progression and destabilization of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). These roles include: (i) driving atheroprogression in the clinically stable phase of disease; (ii) inciting atheroma destabilization and precipitating acute coronary syndromes (ACS); and (iii) responding to cardiomyocyte necrosis in myocardial infarction (MI). Despite an evolving understanding of these biologic processes, successful clinical translation into effective therapies has proven challenging. Realizing the promise of targeting inflammation in the prevention and treatment of ASCVD will likely require more individualized approaches, as the degree of inflammation differs among cardiovascular patients. A large body of evidence has accumulated supporting the use of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) as a clinical measure of inflammation. Appreciating the mechanistic diversity of ACS triggers and the kinetics of hsCRP in MI may resolve purported inconsistencies from prior observational studies. Future clinical trial designs incorporating hsCRP may hold promise to enable individualized approaches. The aim of this Clinical Review is to summarize the current understanding of how inflammation contributes to ASCVD progression, destabilization, and adverse clinical outcomes. We offer forward-looking perspective on what next steps may enable successful clinical translation into effective therapeutic approaches—enabling targeting the right patients with the right therapy at the right time—on the road to more individualized ASCVD care.


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