Estimating Incoming Cross-border Trips Through Land Use data Resources – A Case of Karachi City

A multitude of studies have been motivated on the association between land use, urban settings and transport infrastructure to assist policy makers in sustainable planning. Alike, incorporation of cross-border trips have been an integral part of transportation demand models through external surveys. The present study seeks to explore the Incoming Cross Border Traffic (ICBT) into a study area based on the characteristics of a study area that attracts cross-border trips from outside region. This paper presents an analysis of cross-border trips in Karachi Metropolis, largest city of Pakistan, through Household Individual Survey (HIS-2010) and land use data from alternative resources. Results reveal that land use particulars, socioeconomic characteristics and travel attributes of individuals significantly influences cross-border trips and this effect varies spatially. Work, shopping and Education trips are discussed through separate models in this paper with a number of practical insights to policy makers for sustainable development of city. This study contribute in elucidating travel behaviour through land use parameters and also persuade professionals to integrate estimation of cross-border trips by socioeconomic parameters, in transport forecasting models

The Wild East: Criminal Political Economies in South Asia

The Wild East bridges political economy and anthropology to examine a variety of il/legal economic sectors and businesses such as red sanders, coal, fire, oil, sand, air spectrum, land, water, real estate, procurement and industrial labour. The 11 case studies, based across India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, explore how state regulative law is often ignored and/or selectively manipulated. The emerging collective narrative shows the workings of regulated criminal economic systems where criminal formations, politicians, police, judges and bureaucrats are deeply intertwined. By pioneering the field-study of the politicisation of economic crime, and disrupting the wider literature on South Asia’s informal economy, The Wild East aims to influence future research agendas through its case for the study of mafia-enterprises and their engagement with governance in South Asia and outside. Its empirical and theoretical contribution to debates about economic crimes in democratic regimes will be of critical value to researchers in Economics, Anthropology, Sociology, Comparative Politics, Political Science and International Relations, Criminologists and Development Studies, as well as to those inside and outside academia interested in current affairs and the relationship between crime, politics and mafia enterprises

The Wild East

The Wild East bridges political economy and anthropology to examine a variety of il/legal economic sectors and businesses such as red sanders, coal, fire, oil, sand, air spectrum, land, water, real estate, procurement and industrial labour. The 11 case studies, based across India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, explore how state regulative law is often ignored and/or selectively manipulated. The emerging collective narrative shows the workings of regulated criminal economic systems where criminal formations, politicians, police, judges and bureaucrats are deeply intertwined. By pioneering the field-study of the politicisation of economic crime, and disrupting the wider literature on South Asia’s informal economy, The Wild East aims to influence future research agendas through its case for the study of mafia-enterprises and their engagement with governance in South Asia and outside. Its empirical and theoretical contribution to debates about economic crimes in democratic regimes will be of critical value to researchers in Economics, Anthropology, Sociology, Comparative Politics, Political Science and International Relations, Criminologists and Development Studies, as well as to those inside and outside academia interested in current affairs and the relationship between crime, politics and mafia enterprises

An anthropologist among the transport specialists: Social science insights on the political-economy barriers to the implementation of low-carbon transport in urban South Asia and Africa

Social science knowledge can be communicated to encourage transport professionals to think positively about the insights derived from qualitative research. Social science asks different kinds of questions and makes different types of connections in the field to those conventionally asked by engineers. Reflexive social science techniques can make professionals aware of the assumptions that underpin and drive their policy and practice. Understanding national cultural conditions that influence attitudes and capacities towards low carbon transport and ideas of development are key to working across boundaries and to building a truly global agenda for transport thinking. Social science methodologies are well suited to developing such understandings. This research was funded under the Department for International Development’s Policy Research Fun

The Politics of Uncertainty

"Why is uncertainty so important to politics today? To explore the underlying reasons, issues and challenges, this book’s chapters address finance and banking, insurance, technology regulation and critical infrastructures, as well as climate change, infectious disease responses, natural disasters, migration, crime and security and spirituality and religion. The book argues that uncertainties must be understood as complex constructions of knowledge, materiality, experience, embodiment and practice. Examining in particular how uncertainties are experienced in contexts of marginalisation and precarity, this book shows how sustainability and development are not just technical issues, but depend on deeply political values and choices. What burgeoning uncertainties require lies less in escalating efforts at control, but more in a new – more collective, mutualistic and convivial – politics of responsibility and care. If hopes of much-needed progressive transformation are to be realised, then currently-blinkered understandings of uncertainty need to be met with renewed democratic struggle. Written in an accessible style and illustrated by multiple case studies from across the world, this book will appeal to a wide cross-disciplinary audience in fields ranging from economics to law to science studies to sociology to anthropology and geography, as well as professionals working in risk management, disaster risk reduction, emergencies and wider public policy fields.

Ground motion sensitivity analyses for the greater St. Louis Metropolitan area

Local site effects can play an important role in modifying the intensity of ground shaking and earthquake damage. The process of rock motion propagating through the soil column can be approximated using one-dimensional site response analyses. To evaluate the likely site response several input parameters are required. These include: thickness of the unconsolidated soil cap, shear wave velocity, unit density, dynamic soil properties, and acceleration time histories. Considerable uncertainty often exists in regards to these input parameters. In this study, the program Shake2000 was employed for site response analyses and sensitivity analyses were performed to determine how the uncertainties in soil cap thickness, shear wave velocity, and input ground motion affect predicted site response. These evaluations were made for PGA, 0.2 sec, and 1 sec period for spectral accelerations and amplifications --Abstract, pag