Motivations and Emotions Behind Guru Seeking: A Case Study of Thakur Anukulchandra in Bhubaneswar, Odisha

This article explores why people seek out a religious guru, with special reference to Thakur Anukulchandra and his followers in contemporary urban settings of Bhubaneswar, Odisha in India. Through an ethnographic approach, this article examines the expectations of the devotees while seeking out spirituality and what kind of emotions people go through in this process, i.e. their hopes, disappointments, social bonds created with the guru and other followers. It looks at why the followers of this tradition are attracted to this particular ideology, philosophy and its relevance in an urbane setting. The study’s rationale is to explore the complex emotional bond between the guru and the followers, the narratives of devotion, accounts of miracles performed, indices of anxiety, and the nature of well-being. Findings suggest that Thakur’s sect provides people with a meaning and purpose in life and a personal connection with the charismatic guru that helps them tide over various existential crises. By making connections between the past and the present, the organization tries to anchor people’s lives and experiences.

Personality and Walkability: Predicting Walking Behaviour in Urban Settings using the Higher Order Factors of the Big Five amongst Malaysian Adults

Walkability has now been a popular policy to be adopted in the city centre as traffic congestion and inefficient public transportation have affected the mobility of the urban users prior to the pandemic. The pandemic has paved more efforts to improve the design of urban spaces to increase walkability in the cities. In the attempt to predict walking activity amongst Malaysian adults psychologically, a personality test using Big Five Aspect Scales (BFAS) was conducted in relation to individual walking frequency in urban settings. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to analyze the predicting capacity of personality constructs control by general intelligence in relation to walking behaviour. The results show that the higher order meta-traits of the big five personality traits which are Stability (Neuroticism, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness) and Plasticity (Extraversion and Openness to Experience) can be used as a reliable predictor for individual walking behaviour. As hypothesized, walking behaviour amongst Malaysians was characterized by reversed Stability (r = -.58) and high Plasticity (r = .76). The implication suggested the necessity of cognitive navigability and design predictability metrics of urban design cognitive performance in influencing the psychological factor of walking behaviour

Using textual volunteered geographic information to model nature-based activities: A case study from Aotearoa New Zealand

A boom in volunteered geographic information has led to extensive data-driven exploration and modeling of places. While many studies have used such data to explore human-environment interaction in urban settings, few have investigated natural, non-urban settings. To address this gap, this study systematically explores the content of online reviews of nature-based recreation activities, and develops a fine-grained hierarchical model that includes 28 aspects grouped into three main domains: activity, settings, and emotions/cognition. It further demonstrates how the model can be used to explore the variation in recreation experiences across activities, setting the stage for the analysis of the spatio-temporal variations in recreation experiences in the future. Importantly, the study provides an annotated corpus that can be used as a training dataset for developing methods to automatically capture aspects of recreation experiences in texts.

Neighborhood Environment and Social Support Received: An Examination of Race and Gender in Baltimore City

Social support in urban settings is likely shaped by the context of the neighborhood environment. Patterns of support may also differ by the type of support received as well as characteristics of the person receiving support. For example, women and Black residents may have stronger support networks compared to men and white individuals, and variation by gender and race in social support may have important implications for promoting well-being in disadvantaged neighborhoods. To investigate the presence of these potential patterns in a disadvantaged urban environment, we analyzed 2,553 Baltimore City residents (ages 30-64) from the baseline wave (2004-2009) of the Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Diversity across the Life Span (HANDLS) study. We tested associations between self-assessed neighborhood environment (disorder, cohesion, and control) and social support (from partners, children, and/or friends) and further explored variation by intersections of race and gender using multi-group structural equation modeling. Our results suggest that individuals are more likely to receive support when they perceive their neighborhood to have higher social control and cohesion, particularly in terms of support from friends. Although interactions by race and sex were not statistically significant, a descriptive pattern emerged wherein Black women are particularly likely to receive support from multiple sources when they report more social control in their neighborhood. On the other hand, there is almost no association between neighborhood environment and social support for Black men. We discuss these findings in light of potential neighborhood inequities in informal support access in Baltimore City and similar urban settings.

Strengthening Urban Resilience: Five emerging lessons

Strengthening urban resilience is key to achieving Oxfam's vision of a world without poverty. Urbanization has become a major challenge for almost all countries around the globe. Cities and city inhabitants are facing additional and amplified challenges as a result of rapid urbanization, a changing climate and rising inequality in urban areas. The COVID-19 crisis has further highlighted the importance of strengthening inclusive urban resilience to acute shocks and chronic stresses. Oxfam's Resilience Knowledge Hub conducted the Urban Resilience Learning Exchange (URLE) project with pilot programmes in Jordan, Pakistan, Nepal, South Africa, Kenya and Bangladesh to develop a better understanding of what it takes to build resilience in urban settings. This paper summarizes the learning from the pilots and looks at how Oxfam can further strengthen its urban resilience programming.