(So) Big Data and the transformation of the city

The exponential increase in the availability of large-scale mobility data has fueled the vision of smart cities that will transform our lives. The truth is that we have just scratched the surface of the research challenges that should be tackled in order to make this vision a reality. Consequently, there is an increasing interest among different research communities (ranging from civil engineering to computer science) and industrial stakeholders in building knowledge discovery pipelines over such data sources. At the same time, this widespread data availability also raises privacy issues that must be considered by both industrial and academic stakeholders. In this paper, we provide a wide perspective on the role that big data have in reshaping cities. The paper covers the main aspects of urban data analytics, focusing on privacy issues, algorithms, applications and services, and georeferenced data from social media. In discussing these aspects, we leverage, as concrete examples and case studies of urban data science tools, the results obtained in the “City of Citizens” thematic area of the Horizon 2020 SoBigData initiative, which includes a virtual research environment with mobility datasets and urban analytics methods developed by several institutions around Europe. We conclude the paper outlining the main research challenges that urban data science has yet to address in order to help make the smart city vision a reality

Implementing Gehl’s Theory to Study Urban Space. The Case of Monotowns

The paper presents a method to operationalize Jan Gehl’s questions for public space into metrics to map Russian monotowns’ urban life in 2017. With the use of social media data, it becomes possible to scale Gehl’s approach from the survey of small urban areas to the analysis of entire cities while maintaining the human scale’s resolution. When underperforming public spaces are detected, we propose a matrix for urban design interventions using Jane Jacobs’ typologies for good city life. Furthermore, this method was deployed to improve the conditions of public spaces in Russian monotowns through a series of architectural briefs for design competitions and urban design guidelines for local administrations.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

Capturing time in space : Dynamic analysis of accessibility and mobility to support spatial planning with open data and tools

Understanding the spatial patterns of accessibility and mobility are a key (factor) to comprehend the functioning of our societies. Hence, their analysis has become increasingly important for both scientific research and spatial planning. Spatial accessibility and mobility are closely related concepts, as accessibility describes the potential to move by modeling, whereas spatial mobility describes the realized movements of individuals. While both spatial accessibility and mobility have been widely studied, the understanding of how time and temporal change affects accessibility and mobility has been rather limited this far. In the era of ‘big data’, the wealth of temporally sensitive spatial data has made it possible, better than ever, to capture and understand the temporal realities of spatial accessibility and mobility, and hence start to understand better the dynamics of our societies and complex living environment. In this thesis, I aim to develop novel approaches and methods to study the spatio-temporal realities of our living environments via concepts of accessibility and mobility: How people can access places, how they actually move, and how they use space. I inspect these dynamics on several temporal granularities, covering hourly, daily, monthly, and yearly observations and analyses. With novel big data sources, the methodological development and careful assessment of the information extracted from them is extremely important as they are increasingly used to guide decision-making. Hence, I investigate the opportunities and pitfalls of different data sources and methodological approaches in this work. Contextually, I aim to reveal the role of time and the mode of transportation in relation to spatial accessibility and mobility, in both urban and rural environments, and discuss their role in spatial planning. I base my findings on five scientific articles on studies carried out in: Peruvian Amazonia; national parks of South Africa and Finland; Tallinn, Estonia; and Helsinki metropolitan area, Finland. I use and combine data from various sources to extract knowledge from them, including GPS devices; transportation schedules; mobile phones; social media; statistics; land-use data; and surveys. My results demonstrate that spatial accessibility and mobility are highly dependent on time, having clear diurnal and seasonal changes. Hence, it is important to consider temporality when analyzing accessibility, as people, transport and activities all fluctuate as a function of time that affects e.g. the spatial equality of reaching services. In addition, different transport modes should be considered as there are clear differences between them. Furthermore, I show that, in addition to the observed spatial population dynamics, also nature’s own dynamism affects accessibility and mobility on a regional level due to the seasonal variation in river-levels. Also, the visitation patterns in national parks vary significantly over time, as can be observed from social media. Methodologically, this work demonstrates that with a sophisticated fusion of methods and data, it is possible to assess; enrich; harmonize; and increase the spatial and temporal accuracy of data that can be used to better inform spatial planning and decision-making. Finally, I wish to emphasize the importance of bringing scientific knowledge and tools into practice. Hence, all the tools, analytical workflows, and data are openly available for everyone whenever possible. This approach has helped to bring the knowledge and tools into practice with relevant stakeholders in relation to spatial planning

Reggaeir@ Sou Eu: Race, Nation and the Politics of Identity in Roots Reggae Culture in Sao Luis do Maranhao, Brazil

This dissertation examines the performative space of roots reggae music and dance performancescape in São Luis do Maranhão, Brazil. It examines the ways in which Caribbean sounds are employed by Afro-Maranhese to create performative spaces that contest representations of blackness in Brazil. In this examination, I address how Afro-Maranheses engage in the process of transformation by appropriating Caribbean Sounds in the performative spaces of blackness. The dissertation also examines the ways in which these performative spaces, as spaces of struggle are objects of legal forms of surveillance, discipline and punishments that are targeted by the policia militar (military police) because they critically challenge the state’s representations of blackness. I make two pronounced contentions to support all of my arguments in this study. Firstly, I posit that musical and dance practices are essential to the understanding of the production of Afro-Brasilidade Space—what I have termed as the dialogic performative space that represents the series of repeated responsive performances that Afro-Brazilians engage in, in the challenge of the state’s simultaneous celebration of black culture and routine violence against black bodies. Borrowing Brah’s (1996) construct of diaspora space and Dirlick’s (1996) notion of “ancestralidade” (ancestrality), I define Afro-Brasilidade Space as the articulated and expressive space of contestation where representations of blackness are challenged. It is also the conceptual space that allows Afro-Brazilians to produce their versions of Afrodiasporic subjectivities, which I define as the ways in which Afro-Brazilians, like other people of African descent in the African diaspora engage in similar enunciations of contestation to combat their own experiences of racialized subjectivity. I employ this analytical framework to highlight the performative space of roots reggae music and culture in the critical practice of blackness, and how these are inscribed in and contest the pedagogical discourse of nation and citizenship organized around racial democracy as part of the broader Afrodiasporic performance-scape. Secondly, I argue that the study of an Afrodiasporic musical practices such as reggaeir@ismo requires an examining of different forms that agency can take, particularly agency in response to state violence against the black body. I argue that the embodied practices of reggaeir@ismo in the performative of roots reggae are counter-discursive and counter-hegemonic, and this explains why these spaces are heavily policed. I fundamentally focus my arguments on the assertions that Brazilian affirmative action, as a documentary practice is not fundamentally corrective. Using the reggaeir@ performative space as a lens, I examine how affirmative action as a statist discursive tool attempts to render invisible the contradictions between the lived realities of punishing and disciplining reggaeir@s through violent policing of their performative spaces and its promises of equal rights for Afro-Brazilians in its new racial politics