Extracting emergent knowledge about the socioeconomic urban contexts

An approach to represent and analyze socioeconomic contexts as well as to reason with them, in order to extract useful conclusions about the social perception emerging from citizens’ beliefs and feelings, is introduced. We concentrate here in the formal aspects of the solution, completing this way our workMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2013-41086-PJunta de Andalucía TIC-606

Urban Knowledge Extraction, Representation and Reasoning as a Bridge from Data City towards Smart City

Urban Data management represents a major challenge in the field of Smart Cities. Its understanding is essential for the development of better smart services, which are a persistent demand in urban policies. From all the sources of data available, those that involve a collective processing of urban information (by the citizens or other collectives) deliver in fact, useful insights into social perception. Such is the case, for example, of data collected from mobile networks. Prior to the design of sociotechnical artifacts in cities, it seems important to extract the qualitative and quantitative opinions, sentiment and feedbacks present in these data. In this paper we present three solutions for mining these contents through Knowledge Extraction methods, as a previous step to the prospection of new smart services.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2013-41086-

Converging Space and Producing Place: Social Inequalities and Birth Across Mexico

I combine ethnographic research of the professional midwifery model in Mexico with concepts gleaned from an interdisciplinary literature in order to illustrate how different types of spaces converge in the process of place-making. From October 2010 to November 2013, I conducted twenty-eight months of research, interviewing employees of government bureaus and public health programs, observing how the professional midwifery model unfolds in distinct contexts, performing interviews and participant-observation with casa midwifery students/alumni, and “shadowing” professional midwives and obstetricians as they engage with pregnant women in a hospital setting. Drawing from ethnographic examples, this article points to five different types of space: contested, geopolitical, transnational, gendered, and embodied. It furthermore argues that these different spaces map onto socioeconomic and geo-racial grades in ways that produce wholly distinct places for individuals with contrasting positionalities in society. Given the ethnographic data presented in this article, to what extent health models can be successfully applied to different local contexts? This research concludes that it is impossible to cleanly extract health models from one local context and implement them in another. Greater attention to how contested, geopolitical, transnational, gendered, and embodied spaces are mapped onto one another to create unique places can productively inform public health policy and lead to more appropriate place-based programs. - Este artículo combina la investigación etnográfica del modelo de partería profesional en México con conceptos extraídos de una literatura interdisciplinaria para ilustrar cómo los diferentes tipos de espacio convergen en el proceso de creación de lugares. Desde octubre de 2010 hasta noviembre de 2013, realicé veintiocho meses de investigación, entrevisté a empleados de agencias gubernamentales y programas de salud pública, observé cómo se desarrolla el modelo de partería profesional en contextos diferentes, realicé entrevistas y observación de participantes con estudiantes / exalumnos de partería de casa y “seguí de cerca” a las parteras y obstetras profesionales cuando proporcionaron servicios de salud a mujeres embarazadas en un hospital. A partir de ejemplos etnográficos, este artículo apunta a cinco tipos diferentes de espacio: disputado, geopolítico, transnacional, de género y encarnado. Además, argumenta que estos diferentes espacios se mapean en grados socioeconómicos y geo-raciales en formas que producen lugares completamente distintos para individuos con posicionalidades contrastantes en la sociedad. Dados los datos etnográficos presentados en este artículo, ¿en qué medida los modelos de salud pueden aplicarse con éxito a diferentes contextos locales? Esta investigación concluye que es imposible extraer de manera limpia los modelos de salud de un contexto local e implementarlos en otro. Una mayor atención a la forma en que los espacios disputados, geopolíticos, transnacionales, de género y incorporados se asignan entre sí para crear lugares únicos puede informar de manera productiva las políticas de salud pública y conducir a programas basados en el lugar más apropiados

Population Structure and Economic Cycles in Greece. A Multidimensional Regional Analysis (1988-2016)

Demographic structures have undergone important transformations driven by economic cycles because of population movements and spatially-variable patterns of fertility and mortality. Understanding the latent relationship between changes over time in population structure and sequential waves of expansion and recession is a relevant issue in economic demography. In this regard, the recent history of southern European countries, and especially of Greece, is representative of consecutive economic expansions and recessions. The present study aims at investigating relevant modifications in population structure across Greek regions between 1988 and 2016 using a multi-temporal factor analysis. Being characterized by a relatively young population with traditional family structures, out-migration and moderate immigration up to the late 1980s, Greek demography shifted towards ageing, mononuclear families and a rising immigration rate during the early 2000s economic expansion, with an overall increase of resident population. The subsequent 2007 recession has represented a turning point in Greek demography, consolidating changes in traditional family structures, while stimulating outmigration to northern and western European countries and reducing immigration from developing countries. A diachronic analysis of population structures at sub-national scale indicates a substantial heterogeneity of demographic processes across Greek regions. Metropolitan areas and highly accessible coastal and flat districts including islands experienced rapid population dynamics, while peripheral rural regions underwent a moderate population ageing. Taken together, these processes had a short-term, synergic impact on Greek demographic structure determining a rapid increase in the median population age with possibly negative consequences for the ability of the country's economy to recover from crisis

The Social and Political Dimensions of the Ebola Response: Global Inequality, Climate Change, and Infectious Disease

The 2014 Ebola crisis has highlighted public-health vulnerabilities in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea – countries ravaged by extreme poverty, deforestation and mining-related disruption of livelihoods and ecosystems, and bloody civil wars in the cases of Liberia and Sierra Leone. Ebola’s emergence and impact are grounded in the legacy of colonialism and its creation of enduring inequalities within African nations and globally, via neoliberalism and the Washington Consensus. Recent experiences with new and emerging diseases such as SARS and various strains of HN influenzas have demonstrated the effectiveness of a coordinated local and global public health and education-oriented response to contain epidemics. To what extent is international assistance to fight Ebola strengthening local public health and medical capacity in a sustainable way, so that other emerging disease threats, which are accelerating with climate change, may be met successfully? This chapter considers the wide-ranging socio-political, medical, legal and environmental factors that have contributed to the rapid spread of Ebola, with particular emphasis on the politics of the global and public health response and the role of gender, social inequality, colonialism and racism as they relate to the mobilization and establishment of the public health infrastructure required to combat Ebola and other emerging diseases in times of climate change

Enhancing stakeholders' participation : a semantic, spatial and temporal contextualization perspective

La participation des parties prenantes (PPP) vise à impliquer celles-ci dans les processus de prise de décision concernant des projets affectant leurs communautés. Traditionnellement, les processus de participation des parties prenantes (PPPP) se maintenaient à travers des assemblées et des forums de discussion physiques permettant de rassembler les parties prenantes, de collecter et d'analyser leurs opinions pour aider les décideurs dans leur prise de décision. Ces dernières années, l'évolution des technologies de l'information (TI) et leur prolifération dans la société ont donné lieu au concept émergent de la participation électronique ou la e-Participation. Il s'agit de nouvelles formes de participation basées sur les technologies de l'information tel que les blogs, les plateformes participatives et les réseaux sociaux. La PPP est une notion en constante évolution et a reçu une attention considérable de la part des praticiens et des chercheurs dans différents domaines et disciplines. Cependant, peu de recherches se sont intéressées à la compréhension multidisciplinaire des PPPP et de la valeur que revêtent les données collectées à travers ces PPPP. Cette thèse contribue à la littérature de la PPP en offrant une meilleure compréhension globale du concept de la PP, de ses enjeux multidisciplinaires et de la valeur que revête les données collectées à travers les PPPP. Cette thèse est structurée en deux articles et un chapitre. Le premier article de cette thèse vise à offrir une meilleure compréhension des enjeux multidisciplinaires auxquels les PPPP font face. À l'appui d'une revue systématique de la littérature analysant 191 articles de recherche, cet article met en exergue que les PPP font face à des enjeux : « administratifs », « éthiques », « politiques », « légaux », « technologiques », « sociaux des parties prenantes », « économiques », « socio-économiques » et « d'efficience et d'efficacité ». De plus, l'article démontre que les PPPP œuvrent à l'intérieur de quatre principales dimensions qui sont « la gouvernance », « l'application », « les parties prenantes » et « la société » et que ces dimensions sont interreliées et sont influencées les unes par les autres. Dans ce contexte, l'évolution vers des PPP qui sont plus efficaces et plus résilientes envers ces enjeux requerrait une prise de conscience de ces dimensions d'enjeux et des efforts de collaboration multidisciplinaire entre la recherche et la pratique. Le deuxième article se concentre sur l'enjeu spécifique du « contexte de vie des parties prenantes » et rend compte de la manière dont les parties prenantes expriment, de façon implicite ou explicite, leurs contextes de vie dans leurs commentaires de participation. Par une analyse qualitative des données de participation provenant de quatre études de cas dans deux pays différents, cet article identifie un ensemble de patrons, appelés aussi « patterns », sémantiques, spatiaux et temporels permettant l'identification du contexte de vie des parties prenantes à partir des données des PPPP. L'identification et la compréhension des patrons que les parties prenantes expriment dans leurs commentaires pour représenter leurs contextes de vie visent à renforcer l'influence des parties prenantes sur les décisions découlant des PPP dans lesquelles ces dernières étaient impliquées. De plus, l'article propose un modèle conceptuel démontrant l'importance pour les décideurs de capturer et d'analyser les patrons sémantique, spatial et temporel dans les données des PPPP afin de favoriser une prise de décision cohérente et réactive aux contextes de vie des parties prenantes. Finalement, l'article souligne le rôle que jouent les technologies de l'information pour l'identification de ces patrons. Le troisième chapitre offre une meilleure compréhension de l'identification automatique des dimensions sémantique, spatiale et temporelle du contexte de vie des parties prenantes dans les PPP. En se basant sur une analyse théorique, ce chapitre utilise la théorie des affordances et la théorie du réalisme critique pour offrir une conceptualisation des affordances et des fonctionnalités technologiques correspondantes qui sont nécessaires pour l'identification automatique des patterns sémantiques, spatiaux et temporels dans les futures technologies participatives.Stakeholders participation (SP) aims to involve stakeholders in decision-making processes regarding projects affecting their communities. Traditionally, stakeholders' participation processes (SPPs) were maintained through meetings and physical discussion forums to bring together stakeholders and collect their opinions to help decision-makers in taking their decisions. In recent years, the evolution of information technologies (IT) and their proliferation in society have given rise to the emerging concept of electronic participation or e-Participation. These are new forms of participation based on information technologies such as blogs, participatory platforms and social networks. SP is an ever-evolving concept and has received considerable attention from researchers in different fields and disciplines. However, little research has focused on the multidisciplinary understanding of SPPs and the value of the data collected through these SPPs. This thesis contributes to the SPPs literature by offering a better global understanding of the concept of SP, its multidisciplinary issues and the value of the data collected through SPPs. This thesis is structured in two articles and one chapter. The first article of this thesis aims to provide a better understanding of the multidisciplinary issues that SPPs face. Based on a systematic literature review of 191 research papers, this article aims to review, categorize, and offer a better understanding of the different issues that stakeholders' participation processes (SPPs) can have. This paper has two main contributions. First, it presents a typology of issues that is organized in nine categories: economic, efficiency and effectiveness, ethical, legislative, political, administration, socioeconomic, stakeholders and social, and technology. Second, it proposes a conceptual model of SPPs dimensions of issues. The conceptual model demonstrates that SPPs work within four main dimensions which are "governance", "application", "stakeholders" and "society" and that these dimensions are interrelated and are influenced by each other. The second article focuses on the specific issue of the "stakeholders' living context identification" and attempts to account for how stakeholders implicitly identify their living contexts in their participation comments. Through a qualitative analysis of participation data from four case studies in two different countries, this article identifies a set of semantic, spatial and temporal patterns allowing the contextualization of data collected through SPPs. Moreover, a conceptual model for the identification of the living contexts in SPPs data is proposed. This conceptual model emphasizes the importance for decision-makers to capture and understand semantic, spatial and temporal patterns in SPPs data in order to ensure a decision-making that is consistent and responsive to stakeholders' living contexts. Finally, the article highlights the role that information technology plays in identifying these patterns. The third chapter attempts to provide a better understanding of the automatic identification of the semantic, spatial and temporal dimensions of the living contexts of stakeholders in SPPs. Based on a theoretical analysis, this chapter uses the theory of affordances and the theory of critical realism to offer a conceptualization of affordances and their corresponding information technology functionalities that are necessary for the automatic identification of semantic, spatial and temporal patterns in future participation tools

Towards Urban General Intelligence: A Review and Outlook of Urban Foundation Models

Machine learning techniques are now integral to the advancement of intelligent urban services, playing a crucial role in elevating the efficiency, sustainability, and livability of urban environments. The recent emergence of foundation models such as ChatGPT marks a revolutionary shift in the fields of machine learning and artificial intelligence. Their unparalleled capabilities in contextual understanding, problem solving, and adaptability across a wide range of tasks suggest that integrating these models into urban domains could have a transformative impact on the development of smart cities. Despite growing interest in Urban Foundation Models~(UFMs), this burgeoning field faces challenges such as a lack of clear definitions, systematic reviews, and universalizable solutions. To this end, this paper first introduces the concept of UFM and discusses the unique challenges involved in building them. We then propose a data-centric taxonomy that categorizes current UFM-related works, based on urban data modalities and types. Furthermore, to foster advancement in this field, we present a promising framework aimed at the prospective realization of UFMs, designed to overcome the identified challenges. Additionally, we explore the application landscape of UFMs, detailing their potential impact in various urban contexts. Relevant papers and open-source resources have been collated and are continuously updated at https://github.com/usail-hkust/Awesome-Urban-Foundation-Models