114 research outputs found

    Prosperity in the Twenty-First Century

    Get PDF
    Prosperity in the Twenty-First Century sets out a new vision for prosperity in the twenty-first century and how it can be achieved for all. The volume challenges orthodox understandings of economic models, but goes beyond contemporary debates to show how social innovation drives economic value. Drawing on substantive research in the UK, Lebanon and Kenya, it develops new concepts, frameworks, models and metrics for prosperity across a wide range of contexts, emphasising commonalities and differences. Its distinctive approach goes beyond defining and measuring prosperity – addressing the debate about the failures of GDP – to formulating and describing what is needed to make prosperity a realisable proposition for specific people living in specific locales. Departing from general propositions about post-growth to delineate pathways to prosperity, the volume emphasises that visions of the good life are diverse and require empirical work co-designed with local communities and stakeholders to drive change. It is essential reading for policymakers who are stuck, local government officers who need new tools, activists who wonder what is next, academics in need of refreshment, and students and people of all ages who want a way forward

    A pragmatic guide to geoparsing evaluation

    Get PDF
    Abstract: Empirical methods in geoparsing have thus far lacked a standard evaluation framework describing the task, metrics and data used to compare state-of-the-art systems. Evaluation is further made inconsistent, even unrepresentative of real world usage by the lack of distinction between the different types of toponyms, which necessitates new guidelines, a consolidation of metrics and a detailed toponym taxonomy with implications for Named Entity Recognition (NER) and beyond. To address these deficiencies, our manuscript introduces a new framework in three parts. (Part 1) Task Definition: clarified via corpus linguistic analysis proposing a fine-grained Pragmatic Taxonomy of Toponyms. (Part 2) Metrics: discussed and reviewed for a rigorous evaluation including recommendations for NER/Geoparsing practitioners. (Part 3) Evaluation data: shared via a new dataset called GeoWebNews to provide test/train examples and enable immediate use of our contributions. In addition to fine-grained Geotagging and Toponym Resolution (Geocoding), this dataset is also suitable for prototyping and evaluating machine learning NLP models

    Information actors beyond modernity and coloniality in times of climate change:A comparative design ethnography on the making of monitors for sustainable futures in Curaçao and Amsterdam, between 2019-2022

    Get PDF
    In his dissertation, Mr. Goilo developed a cutting-edge theoretical framework for an Anthropology of Information. This study compares information in the context of modernity in Amsterdam and coloniality in Curaçao through the making process of monitors and develops five ways to understand how information can act towards sustainable futures. The research also discusses how the two contexts, that is modernity and coloniality, have been in informational symbiosis for centuries which is producing negative informational side effects within the age of the Anthropocene. By exploring the modernity-coloniality symbiosis of information, the author explains how scholars, policymakers, and data-analysts can act through historical and structural roots of contemporary global inequities related to the production and distribution of information. Ultimately, the five theses propose conditions towards the collective production of knowledge towards a more sustainable planet

    Drawing in the margins : identity and subjectivity in contemporary autobiographical comics

    Full text link
    [À l'origine dans / Was originally part of : Thèses et mémoires - FAS - Département d'études anglaises]Mon projet de thèse démontre comment le genre de la bande dessinée peut être mobilisé de façon à déstabiliser les idéologies identitaires dominantes dans un contexte autobiographique. À partir de théories contemporaines de récits de vie et de leurs emphase sur la construction du sujet au travers du processus autobiographique, j’explore les façons par lesquelles les propriétés formelles de la bande dessinée permettent aux artistes féminines et minoritaires d’affirmer leurs subjectivités et de s’opposer aux idéaux hégémoniques reliés à la représentation du genre, du traumatisme, de la sexualité, de l’ethnicité, et du handicap, en s’auto-incarnant à même la page de bande dessinée. Par une analyse visuelle formelle, ma thèse prouve que les esthétiques hyper-personnelles du dessin à la main découlant d’une forme ancrée dans l’instabilité générique et le (re)mixage continu des codes verbaux et visuels permettent aux artistes de déstabiliser les régimes de représentation conventionnels dans une danse complexe d’appropriation et de resignification qui demeure toujours ouverte à la création de nouveaux sens. Suite à l’introduction, mon second chapitre explique la résistance de Julie Doucet par rapport aux plaisirs visuels découlant de la contemplation des femmes dans la bande dessinée par son utilisation du concept originairement misogyne de la matérialité féminine grotesque comme principe génératif à partir duquel elle articule une critique de la forme et du contenu des représentations normatives et restrictives du corps féminin. Le troisième chapitre considère la capacité de la bande dessinée à représenter le traumatisme, et se penche sur les efforts de Phoebe Gloeckner visant à faire face aux abus sexuels de son enfance par l’entremise d’un retour récursif sur des souvenirs visuels fondamentaux. Le chapitre suivant maintient que la nature sérielle de la bande dessinée, sa multimodalité et son association à la culture zine, fournissent à Ariel Schrag les outils nécessaires pour expérimenter sur les codes visuels et verbaux de façon à décrire et à affirmer le sens identitaire en flux de l’adolescent queer dans sa quadrilogie expérimentale Künstlerroman. Le cinquième chapitre suggère que l’artiste de provenance Libanaise Toufic El Rassi utilise la forme visuelle pour dénoncer les mécanismes générateurs de préjugés anti-Arabes, et qu’il affirme son identité grâce au pouvoir de rhétorique temporaire que lui procure l’incarnation d’un stéréotype connu. Mon dernier chapitre démontre comment Al Davison emploie la bande dessinée pour mettre en scène des rencontres d’observations dynamiques avec le spectateur implicite pouvant potentiellement aider l’auteur à éviter le regard objectivant généralement associé à la perception du handicap.This dissertation argues that the comics form can be mobilized to destabilize dominant notions of identity in an autobiographical context. Drawing on current theories of life writing that stress the construction of the self through the autobiographical process, it explores how the specific formal properties of comics provide opportunities for women and minority artists to assert subjectivity and contend with hegemonic ideas concerning the representation of gender, trauma, sexuality, ethnicity, and disability through the embodiment of the self on the comics page. Through formal visual analysis, the dissertation shows how the highly personal and hand-drawn aesthetics of a form that thrives on generic instability and the continual (re)mixing of verbal and visual codes allows artists to destabilize conventional representational schemes in a complex dance of appropriation and resignification that is always open to the creation of new meanings. Following the introduction, Chapter 2 shows how Julie Doucet resists the visual pleasure associated with looking at women in comics by using the originally misogynistic concept of grotesque female materiality as a generative principle from where she articulates a critique in both form and content of normative and restricting representations of the female body. Chapter 3 examines the comics form’s ability to depict trauma, and focuses on Phoebe Gloeckner’s attempts to come to terms with childhood sexual abuse through a recursive return to key visual memories. Chapter 4 argues that the form’s serial nature, multimodality, and association with zine culture provides Ariel Schrag with the tools to experiment with visual and verbal codes in order to delineate and assert a sense of the in-flux and queer teenage self in an experimental four-volume Künstlerroman. Chapter 5 argues that Lebanese-born artist Toufic El Rassi uses the visual form to expose the mechanism behind the production of anti-Arab prejudice, and that he asserts personal identity through the temporary rhetorical power afforded by the inhabitation of a known stereotype. Chapter 6 shows how Al Davison employs the comics form to stage dynamic staring encounters with the implied observer that have the potential to help the author elude the objectifying gaze commonly associated with looking at disability

    Oil spill forecasting systems uncertainty assessment in the Aegean Sea

    Get PDF
    Το Αιγαίο είναι ένας από τους πιο πολυσύχναστους θαλάσσιους διαύλους του κόσμου, συνδυάζοντας πολύπλοκη και έντονη ατμοσφαιρική και θαλάσσια κυκλοφορία με έντονη εποχικότητα, περίπλοκη ακτογραμμή και βαθυμετρία. Επομένως, η εκτίμηση της αβεβαιότητας των συστημάτων πρόγνωσης διασποράς πετρελαιοκηλίδων στην περιοχή αυτή έχει μεγάλο ενδιαφέρον. Σκοπός της παρούσας μελέτης είναι να εκτιμηθεί το αντίκτυπο της αβεβαιότητας των ατμοσφαιρικών δράσεων στην απόδοση του μοντέλου διασποράς πετρελαιοκηλίδας και στην διασπορά των ρύπων στο θαλάσσιο περιβάλλον. Πραγματοποιήθηκαν προσομοιώσεις τύπου «ανσάμπλ» χρησιμοποιώντας δεδομένα του ECMWF Ensemble Prediction System και το αριθμητικό μοντέλο MEDSLIK II. Το Αιγαίο Πέλαγος επιλέχθηκε ως περιοχή μελέτης όπου πραγματοποιήθηκαν «ανσάμπλς» 50 μελών, διάρκειας 7 ημερών σε διαφορετικές εποχές. Επιλέχθηκαν τρεις τύποι πετρελαίου που αντιπροσωπεύουν ελαφρές, μεσαίες και βαρύτερες πετρελαιοκηλίδες, καλύπτοντας επίσης ένα ευρύ φάσμα πυκνοτήτων πετρελαίου. Η διάρκεια και ο ρυθμός διαρροής του πετρελαίου επιλέχθηκαν λαμβάνοντας υπόψη τα σημαντικά ατυχήματα του παρελθόντος, όπως το ατύχημα του Prestige. Τα αποτελέσματα υποδεικνύουν ότι τα σφάλματα του μοντέλου στις τροχιές της πετρελαιοκηλίδας είναι ευαίσθητα στην αβεβαιότητα των ατμοσφαιρικών δράσεων. Μία προσέγγιση τύπου «ανσάμπλ» που θεωρεί σφάλματα του μοντέλου στις ατμοσφαιρικές δράσεις παρουσιάζει μεγάλες δυνατότητες για την πρόβλεψη πολλών πιθανών «μονοπατιών» μεταφοράς πετρελαίου, τα οποία θα μπορούσαν να παρέχουν σημαντικές πληροφορίες για τις στρατηγικές ελέγχου και μετριασμού, σε περίπτωση ενός ατυχήματος πετρελαιοκηλίδας.The Aegean Sea is one of the world’s busiest waterways, combined with complex and intense weather and sea current patterns with strong seasonality, complicated coastline and bathymetry. Therefore, the uncertainty assessment of the oil spill forecasting systems in this region is of great interest. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of the uncertainty of the atmospheric forcing on the performance of the oil spill modelling and the dispersion of the pollutants in the marine environment. Ensemble simulations were carried out using the ECMWF Ensemble Prediction System and the oil spill model MEDSLIK II. The Aegean Sea was chosen as the study area performing ensembles of 50 members with seven days forecast lead time, during different seasons. Three types of oil were chosen representing lighter, medium and heavier oil spills, covering also a wide range of oil densities. The oil spill duration and the spill rate were chosen taking into account significant accidents of the past like for instance the Prestige case. Results suggest that the model errors in the oil spill trajectories are sensitive to the atmospheric forcing uncertainties. An ensemble approach assuming model errors in the atmospheric forcing shows great potential for predicting several possible pathways of oil spill transport, which could provide important information for the control and mitigation strategies, in the event of an oil spill accident

    GEOBIA 2016 : Solutions and Synergies., 14-16 September 2016, University of Twente Faculty of Geo-Information and Earth Observation (ITC): open access e-book

    Get PDF

    ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks: a literature review

    Get PDF
    Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation is a complex and vibrant process, one that involves a combination of technological and organizational interactions. Often an ERP implementation project is the single largest IT project that an organization has ever launched and requires a mutual fit of system and organization. Also the concept of an ERP implementation supporting business processes across many different departments is not a generic, rigid and uniform concept and depends on variety of factors. As a result, the issues addressing the ERP implementation process have been one of the major concerns in industry. Therefore ERP implementation receives attention from practitioners and scholars and both, business as well as academic literature is abundant and not always very conclusive or coherent. However, research on ERP systems so far has been mainly focused on diffusion, use and impact issues. Less attention has been given to the methods used during the configuration and the implementation of ERP systems, even though they are commonly used in practice, they still remain largely unexplored and undocumented in Information Systems research. So, the academic relevance of this research is the contribution to the existing body of scientific knowledge. An annotated brief literature review is done in order to evaluate the current state of the existing academic literature. The purpose is to present a systematic overview of relevant ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks as a desire for achieving a better taxonomy of ERP implementation methodologies. This paper is useful to researchers who are interested in ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Results will serve as an input for a classification of the existing ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Also, this paper aims also at the professional ERP community involved in the process of ERP implementation by promoting a better understanding of ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks, its variety and history

    Transformations of Middle Eastern Natural Environments: Legacies and Lessons

    Get PDF

    A second order cybernetics approach to the deconstruction of risk in the domain of anti money laundering

    Get PDF
    This research examines the application of the risk-based approach (RBA) in the context of anti-money laundering (AML) and explores how it drives risk interpretation and deconstruction within relevant AML stakeholders.Review of existing literature indicates that the majority of studies deliver descriptive and typological assessments of existing AML frameworks. The belief that the RBA supports institutions in their risk management is unquestioned throughout the industry. Yet the interpretation and application of the RBA impacts the way risk is perceived, represented and handled, resulting in a misalignment between stakeholders. In addition, there is no assessment of whether the RBA generates additional ML risk.To address the above, a cross-case study was conducted within two FIUs with data collection carried out primarily through semistructured interviews of key AML experts within both organisations and through reviewing relevant documentation and data. In addition, complementary semistructured interviews were conducted with risk practitioners within the banking and regulatory industries.This interpretive research is grounded in Luhmann’s systems theoretical treatise on risk (Luhmann, 1993) and can be positioned in the tradition of second-order cybernetics. The theory also informs data collection. The research identifies that AML practitioners interpret ML risk as an entity that can be contained, largely unaware that ML risk is interdependent on risk, essentially self-referential and autopoietic. Furthermore, this research shows that the RBA fails to capture the complex phenomena of feedback and irritation across systems that result in de-risking, which, in turn, leads to re-risking. Such phenomena are inevitable and should be facilitated to enable systems to minimise their own complexity. On this basis, this research proposes a new ML risk communication framework that is informed by Luhmann’s risk model and enhanced by the concepts of risk bearer and translation code introduced in this research
    corecore