Visualisation, VISC and scientific insight

CISRG discussion paper ;

Representing the MAJORITY WORLD famine, photojournalism and the Changing Visual Economy

Our knowledge of the world is mediated. This means knowledge depends on representations provided to us from a variety of sources. However, we should not limit representation to a concern with language, or suggest that representations produce fictions unconnected to the real world. To avoid these problems we need to understand mediated knowledge and representation in terms of discourse. This thesis examines aspects of a particular discourse, the visual discourse of photojournalism, and explores its role in constructing the imagined geography of Africa. This thesis investigates how photographic illustrations of Africa play a role in constructing knowledge of the continent for mainstream UK audiences. It undertakes this in terms of the ‘Minority World’ and the ‘Majority World’ in order to challenge the assumptions of superiority and inferiority associated with traditional representations of ‘First World/Third World’ or ‘developed/underdeveloped’. Central to the discussion is the notion of a specific photographic point of view based on the author’s background as a Minority World photographer who has undertaken extensive work in the Majority World. The thesis considers how historical photographic representations of African countries that are beyond the personal experience of UK mainstream audiences, and the formation of key compositions in a particular style to represent famine, were repeated through the last century and how these compositions relate to current public understandings of the Majority World as a particular place. Through this discussion the thesis critically analyses public consumption of such images and argues the construction of key events (disasters, famines, etc.) are central to the imaginary construction of the continent of Africa. It argues that colonial relations of power and knowledge, and the production of ‘otherness’ continue to influence contemporary images of the Majority World. Taking the1984-5 Ethiopian famine as a key event in the formation of geographic visualisations of the African continent, the thesis both considers this event in detail and traces its influence to the formation of contemporary photographic illustrations. Through critical discourse analysis, extensive interviews with photographers, fieldwork, and surveys the thesis examines contemporary photojournalistic coverage of a single event and how it affects UK public understandings of Africa. The photojournalistic representations of famine in Africa are then considered in terms of the rapidly changing global image economy (in which the move to digital production and distribution is transforming photographic practice), the rise of local photographers, and the influence of the visual discourses on economic stability and growth of the communities in which their subjects live. These arguments come together in the 2003 case of photographic reports from Bob Geldof’s return to Ethiopia during another purported food crisis. The thesis asks if the changes in the image economy and recent examples of new photographic practice, especially that which follows the codes of conduct for imagery put in place after the Ethiopian famine of 1984-5, demonstrate the potential for changing the way ‘Africa’ is constructed as an imagined geography for UK publics, and, if so, how? It grounds the argument in an extended conclusion, which examines the assignment the author carried out in Mali in November 2005 in conjunction with Oxfam GB. This photographic commission demonstrated the difficulty of finding an alternative visualisation of food insecurity (famine) that meets the demands of non-government organisations’ (NGOs) ethical picture policies yet satisfies the requirements of mainstream media in the UK

“Unmapping” the Ural Playscapes: An Analysis of Playgrounds and Child Play under the Post-Soviet Urban Transition of Yekaterinburg, Russia

This study examines playgrounds as lenses on urban transitions to explain the link between urban transformations and changes in the discourse of play and childhood. Specifically, it compares Soviet public playgrounds and post-Soviet privatized playscapes in the city of Yekaterinburg, Russia, through primary observation and secondary data analysis. Using the framework of social reproduction developed by Cindy Katz and Saskia Sassen to explain how the local forces affect cities, my analysis shows that the shift in the discourse of play and childhood in the post-Soviet period is hinged on global influences combined with local transformations, from the abandonment of Soviet ideals of communal play spaces to the embracement of today’s consumerist play places. Whereas the old Soviet playgrounds have uncertain purposes, in contemporary Yekaterinburg private playgrounds offer a narrative of play in terms of leisure, love, and convenience for parents. Children turn into consumers of private play, leaving most of the Soviet playgrounds as idle spaces in the city. This article argues that Yekaterinburg’s shift toward participating in the globalized economy combined with its transition from the Soviet ideals maintains social relations and reproduces social inequalities in childhood, as this condition favors consumerist narratives of play. I conclude that the playgrounds in Yekaterinburg are bystanders of new global ecologies whereby social, political, and economic transformations become an impetus to reproduce new ways of seeing the social importance and meaning of play and playgrounds

Photographs and history : interpreting past and present through photographs

This book concerns photographs as sources in the research of history and social sciences. The idea is to present various approaches to analyzing both past and present through photographs. The intended target audience is students and researchers interested in historical or contemporary photographs and their meanings. The emphasis of the chapters is on history and social sciences, yet the book also includes perspectives of art history and cultural studies. The focus is on qualitative analysis; however, quantitative approaches are also taken into account

Cinema Komunisto: cinema as a memory site

Cinema Komunisto is a documentary film about the use of the cinematic image in the creation of the political narrative of socialist Yugoslavia, taking as its starting point an abandoned film studio that had once been the crown-jewel of the Yugoslav film industry. An intensive five-year research process resulted in a story told through a montage of clips from fiction films and exclusive documentary archive, interspersed with interviews with key filmmakers, actors and studio bosses, as well as President Tito’s personal projectionist. In the introduction, a brief historical overview establishes the central position of cinema in socialist Yugoslavia, its contribution to the ‘imagined community’ in it’s articulation of political myths and the narration of the common past. Transitioning over to the present-day, the commemorative function of cinema is discussed in the context of post-war and post-socialist public discourse. A theoretical analysis of the relationship between cinema and history follows.Beginning with the concerns over the use of cinema as historical document, it extends to challenges faced by filmmakers seeking to ‘revision’ the past (Rosenstone, 2006)through the making of historical films. Starting with the Annales historians, such as Marc Ferro, and their contribution to the liberation of film from the requirements of written historiography, the argument is made for separating visual historical discourse from historical evidence (Ernest, 1983) and the challenge of making films with cinematic language (de Baecque, 2008)) is taken on. The final theoretical section discusses the impact of the ‘memory turn’ on the meeting between cinema and history, and argues for adopting the key concepts of cultural memory, such as it’s present-day operation, instrumentality and mediality as useful tools for this inquiry. Pierre Nora’s concept of lieux de mémoire proves fundamental as an analytical tool of the analysis of films as ‘memory sites’. The memory turn is then situated within the context of postsocialist societies, such as Yugoslavia, where films become a useful means ofrepresenting the ‘transition of meanings’ taking place. Adopting the concepts of Robert Rosenstone, the next section responds to the challenge of developing ‘rules of engagement’ that would allow for a particular ‘historical understanding.’ By situating Cinema Komunisto within the tradition of refractive cinema (Corrigan, 2011), particularly the use of cinema as an expression of history (Godard’s Histoire(s) du cinéma) or of history written by decree (Marker’s The Last Bolshevik), I set out to assess and build on aesthetic and philosophical concepts developed by Marker and Godard. Closer to home, inspiration is drawn from filmmaker Dušan Makavejev and his approach of developing ‘theory in practice’ in Innocence Unprotected. The elaboration of rules of engagement involves re-working the visual material, including the free mixing of documentary archive and clips from feature films, decontextualising and interrogation of images. Use of concepts such as that of intentional disparity (Baron, 20014) allows the subversion of the intended use of images. Thesection on narrative voice questions the establishing of the right critical distance and subjective positioning of the author as narrator. Following the decisions to eschew an all-knowing voice-over, and to rely on character-narration, the editing approach becomes vital. Montage allows the elaboration of a philosophical approach, invoking Benjamin’s concept of the dialectic image land the rapprochement of historical fragments to provoke critical reflection. Finally, temporal disunity and spatial articulation are discussed as narrative strategies. Temporal non-linearity and parallels in the dramaturgy add the ability to chart transitioning historical meanings into the present-day, tying back to concepts of social memory as the traces of the past in the present. Spatial narration is discussed in light of situated testimonies in geographical lieux de memoire, and the narrative and symbolic meaning of ruins, as markers of social forgetting. Both strategies prove to be valuable as ‘rules of engagement’, in particular because of the political dimension of constructing memory texts. In conclusion it is argued that the historical understanding achieved by the adoption of the discussed ‘rules of engagement’ achieves a reconciliation of subjective truth and intimate lyricism, with the philosophical and pedagogical aim of a critical reflection on conventional historical narration. As a memory text, Cinema Komunisto positions memory before historical truth, and ultimately managing to find meaning in ruins

Managing Ambiguous Amphibians: Feral Cows, People, and Place in Ukraine’s Danube Delta

This paper analyzes how a herd of feral cattle emerged in the core zone of Ukraine’s Danube Biosphere Reserve and why it still exists despite numerous challenges to the legality of its presence there. Answering these questions requires an analytical approach that begins from the premise that animals, plants, substances, documents, and technologies are active participants in making social and political worlds rather than passive objects of human intervention and manipulation. Drawing together insights from multispecies ethnography, animal geography, amphibious anthropology, and studies of nature protection in former Soviet republics, the author argues that the feral cattle exist because they are part of an amphibious multispecies assemblage in which relations among cattle, elements of the delta’s wetland ecologies, legal norms, and the Reserve managers’ documentation practices have aligned to create an autonomous space for cattle to dwell with minimal human intervention

UAVs for the visualization, preservation, and sharing of “lost” eighteenth century fortified system on Monte Urpino hill in Cagliari (Italy)

A photogrammetric survey with the use of the drone is been applied in the study of the historical military landscape of Cagliari and of its disappeared architectures whose traces are preserved in the current urban context; it is possible to identify original position, consistency and elaborate a digital representation of these works thanks to a methodology structured on the following several phases: analysis and comparison of historical maps and study of other archival documents, integrated digital survey with UAV’s application supported by field verification of traces detected, elaboration of the digital model from which to extrapolate 2D and 3D drawings useful for further analysis and hypothesis, representation and dissemination of the results

Developing a Pedestrian Route Network Service (PRNS)

Route network service is becoming increasingly popular. However, although there are significant amount of route network services there are still limitations especially to pedestrian network services. Pedestrians daily make decision about their navigation choices. Developing a pedestrian route network service (PRNS) involves several factors. During this study the analysis of several routing network services have demonstrated that the geographical data is one of the most important factors in order to develop an own PRNS. Considering the idea of estimation two different datasets for the PRNS were evaluated OpenStreetMap (OSM) and Swedish national road database (NVDB). The use of the OSM dataset for developing the PRNS was made after the comparison between both the dataset. OSM has shown more advantages in terms of completeness of route for pedestrian navigation than NVDB. The OSM dataset was created and stored in the PostGIS database. The implementation of own pedestrian network service is intended to facilitate the developments of new PRNS and analysis and comparison of others existing PRNS. The calculation and collection of the routes to be displayed for the user are performed by extended tools within PostGIS such as pgRouting and PostgreSQL respectively. The dataset’s network topology is related to the distance and determination of route choice by the pedestrian. Thus, Geographical Information System (GIS) is also one fundamental factor used in this study to evaluate and create results. The application was implemented in the city of Lund. One of the limitations developing the PRNS is the lack of documentation for new functions which are released by pgRouting developers. Although OSM provides an essential network for developing the PRNS, some closed residential areas, parks, and open areas are not include on the network limiting the PRNS application. In conclusion the PRNS is a useful application in order to assist pedestrians on their wayfinding in the city of Lund. It is also intended to help further development of new PRNS such as mobile PRNS applications. However, the PRNS must be improved and the dataset network requires updating and expansion for successful operations of the PRNS applications.Navigeringstjänster blir allt mer populära, men även om det finns en betydande mängd tjänster, finns det fortfarande begränsningar, speciellt för fotgängare. Fotgängare gör dagligen flera val om hur de ska hitta den bästa vägen i sin närmiljö. Att utveckla en navigeringstjänst för gående (PRNS) involverar flera viktiga faktorer. I denna studie analyseras flera befintliga nättjänster och studien visar att geografiska data är en av de viktigaste faktorerna för att utveckla egna PRNS. Två olika datamängder för PRNS utvärderades: OpenStreetMap (OSM) och svenska nationella vägdatabasen (NVDB). Efter en första utvärdering av de två datamängderna valdes OSM som visade sig ha flera fördelar för en fotgängares navigering. Implementeringen av en egen navigeringstjänst för gående är avsedd att underlätta utvecklingen av nya PRNS och analysering och jämförelsen av andra befintliga PRNS. pqRouting och PostgreSQL beräknar och samlar in de rutter som ska användas, med hjälp av datamängden som finns i databasen PostGIS. Topologin för nätverket i datamängden är relaterat till avstånden och fotgängaren bestämmer vägvalet. Geografiska informationssystem (GIS) är också en grundläggande faktor som används i den här studien för att analysera resultatet. PRNS implementerades i staden Lund och syftet är att underlätta för fotgängare att navigera i staden. En av begränsningarna vid utvecklandet av PRNS är bristen på dokumentation av vissa nya funktionaliteter i pgRouting. Även om OSM tillhandahåller ett grundläggande nätverk av vägar för utvecklingen av PRNS, så saknas information om vissa bostadsområden, parker och allmänna utrymmen, vilket begränsar PRNS. Sammanfattningsvis så är PRNS ett användbart program för att hjälpa fotgängare att välja väg i staden Lund. Vidare utveckling av PRNS kan exempelvis vara en mobilapplikation. Då måste dock PRNS förbättras och datamängden kräver uppdatering och utveckling för att bli framgångsrik.Internet based applications for finding shortest ways to travel are becoming increasingly popular. However, although there are significant amount of these applications there are still limitations especially for pedestrian. Developing an internet based application service for pedestrian involves several steps. During this study the analysis of several internet based applications service for pedestrian have demonstrated that the geographical data is one of the most important components in order to develop the PRNS. Two different dataset were evaluated OpenStreetMap (OSM) and Swedish national road database (NVDB). The use of the OSM dataset for developing the PRNS was made after the comparison between both the dataset. OSM has shown more advantages in terms of completeness of roads network and ways for pedestrian than NVDB. The OSM dataset was created and stored in a database called PostGIS. The calculation of distances and collection of the shortest ways to be displayed for the user are performed by extended tools and programs within PostGIS such as pgRouting and PostgreSQL respectively. The distance and determination of the shortest ways to walk is based on the structure of the dataset and the user choice. Thus, application such as Geographical Information System (GIS) is also one fundamental component used in this study, for example, to evaluate and create maps for visual analysis. One of the limitations developing the PRNS is the lack of documentation for new functions which are released by developers. Some closed residential areas, parks, and open areas are not included on the network limiting the PRNS application. In conclusion the PRNS is a useful application in order to assist pedestrians on their wayfinding in the city of Lund. It is also intended to help further development of new PRNS such as mobile PRNS applications. However, the PRNS must be improved and the dataset network requires updating and expansion for successful operations of the PRNS applications

Shooting horizons: a study of youth empowerment and social change in Tanzania and South Africa

This thesis is a social psychological approach to youth empowerment and social change in urban African contexts. Over a period of 22 months, 39 young people from Dar es Salaam and Soweto participated in a community‐based initiative called Shooting Horizons. The aim of the project was to engage young people in a process of critical consciousness and social action to represent themselves and their communities through their own words and images using Photovoice methodology. Six Photovoice workshops, involving a total of 23 young women and 16 young men, took place in multiple sites, two youth centres in Dar es Salaam and one in Soweto. The data was collected through multiple methods, including a series of 37 photo‐stories, 6 focus groups on development and social change, a record of daily discussion groups, and 1 focus group and 10 individual interviews post‐project. Emerging from the narrative positions of the participants, the project affirms the different directions for living envisaged by young people and promotes alternatives to the stigmatization of young people and their communities by the grand discourses and practices of development. Through a social psychological lens, I explore the impact that stigmatizing representations of development have on individual and social identities in order to make sense of the contradictions and ambiguities that it presents for enacting social change. I argue that a community empowerment framework, supported by an agenda of resistance to the exclusionary discourses and practices of development, can overcome some of the complex mechanisms of power that lead to oppressive social stratifications. The analysis observes the politics of knowledge and recognition in constructing social identities and building social capital to open up spaces for alternatives within the limitations of these particular contexts. The findings of this study consistently refer to how ‘difference’ is imbued in the narratives of young people and the need to address the gendered and racialized beliefs that contribute to participants’ internalized and victimising perspectives and that constrain processes of social change. Recommendations include practical, concrete, and innovative methods for urban African youth to engage in initiatives that suit their own development interests within a social psychological approach to empowerment that redefines community as a space of inbetweens, a citizenry of people sharing common interests and different agendas

Reconfiguring the place of estate-based game management: challenge, change and opportunity within rural England and Wales today

Rural land use in the UK is currently undergoing a significant transition, prompting a re-evaluation of its purpose and beneficiaries. As a key component of this transition, game management claims to occupy over two-thirds of the UK’s rural land mass and annually contributes several billion (GBP) to the economy. Despite this, the subject has remained a taboo within rural and cultural studies, with little attention paid to organised game management within private landed estates. Existing literature is often outdated, spatially biased towards Scotland's larger case examples, or overly focused on environmental or economic accounts. This empirically-driven and culturally-engaged thesis explores driven game management within English and Welsh private estates. The study aims to enhance understanding of those who manage land for this purpose and address key questions about the existence of such spatial configurations, as well as the challenges and opportunities they face. The research employs assemblage thinking as a methodological framework, using a two-fold approach referring to (1) rural stakeholder and estate-based questionnaire surveys and (2) an in-depth thematic exploration of estate case studies. The results show that despite some fluctuations, private estates and key game management actors continue to redefine value and meaning in a contemporary context. Key adaptations include strategic moves to provide and further develop estate-based activities and diversification, while retaining significant levels of game management. The research also highlights multifaceted threats and questions the succession of some forms of game management. Overall, the thesis reveals valuable insight into the private worlds of estate-based game management. The study shows how game management continues to shape rural land use, and why the subject remains contentious. By drawing attention to this aspect of our evolving countryside, the research offers a better understanding of the multifarious challenges confronting rural areas today