Measuring segregation using patterns of daily travel behavior : a social interaction based model of exposure

Recent advances in transportation geography demonstrate the ability to compute a metropolitan scale metric of social interaction opportunities based on the time-geographic concept of joint accessibility. The method we put forward in this article decomposes the social interaction potential (SIP) metric into interactions within and between social groups, such as people of different race, income level, and occupation. This provides a novel metric of exposure, one of the fundamental spatial dimensions of segregation. In particular, the SIP metric is disaggregated into measures of inter-group and intra-group exposure. While activity spaces have been used to measure exposure in the geographic literature, these approaches do not adequately represent the dynamic nature of the target populations. We make the next step by representing both the source and target population groups by space-time prisms, thus more accurately representing spatial and temporal dynamics and constraints. Additionally, decomposition of the SIP metric means that each of the group-wise components of the SIP metric can be represented at zones of residence, workplace, and specific origin-destination pairs. Consequently, the spatial variation in segregation can be explored and hotspots of segregation and integration potential can be identified. The proposed approach is demonstrated for synthetic cities with different population distributions and daily commute flow characteristics, as well as for a case study of the Detroit-Warren-Livonia MSA

Public Security vs. Private Self-Protection: Optimal Taxation and the Social Dynamics of Fear

In this paper, we develop a simple model of social dynamics governing the evolution of strategic self-protection choices of boundedly rational potential victims facing the threat of prospective offenders in a large population with random matching. We prove that individual (and socially transmitted) fear of exposure to criminal threats may actually condition choices even in the face of objective evidence of declining crime rates, and thereby cause the eventual selection of Pareto inefficient equilibria with self-protection. We also show that a suitable strategy of provision of public security financed through discriminatory taxation of self-protective expenses may actually overcome this problem, and drive the social dynamics toward the efficient no protection equilibrium. In our model, we do not obtain, as in Cressman et al. (1998), a crowding-out result such that the net impact of public spending on the actual social dynamics is neutral and the economy keeps on cycling between phases of high and low criminal activity with varying levels of self-protection; quite to the contrary, it can be extremely effective in implementing the social optimum, in that it acts primarily on the intangible dimension, that is, on the social dynamics of fear. We claim that this kind of result calls for more interdisciplinary research on the socio-psycho-economic determinants of fear of crime, and for consequent advances in modelling approaches and techniques.Self-Protection, Fear of Crime, Cultural Selection Dynamics, Replicator Dynamics

Maneuvering Contested Space and Community An Ethnographic Study of the Underground Electronic Music Scene in Itaewon

This thesis examines the dynamics of the underground electronic music scene in Itaewon, Seoul, South Korea, within the framework of contested space. Building upon the theories of Henri Lefebvre, Anthony Cohen, and Sarah Thornton, this research explores the formation of communities, spatiality, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Itaewon’s cultural landscape. Drawing from Lefebvre's reflections on spatial contestation, the study investigates how physical and symbolic spaces in Itaewon shape the experiences and interactions within the underground music scene. It delves into the significance of venues such as clubs and bars as cultural hubs, where diverse groups come together to express themselves and forge communities. Informed by Cohen's theory of community, the research sheds light on the social bonds, shared practices, and sense of belonging that emerge within the underground electronic music scene. It explores the collaborative endeavors, mutual support, and navigation of the complexities of the urban environment and the covid pandemic through stories from interlocuters and ethnography. Thornton's work on club culture provides insights into the role of music and cultural practices in shaping the experiences of individuals within the Itaewon underground club scene. It examines the intersections between music, and identity, highlighting the ambiance and social dynamics of the underground electronic music community. Furthermore, the study delves into the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the underground music scene in Itaewon. It delves into the myriad challenges artists, organizers, and participants confront as they navigate the constraints imposed by restrictions, strive to sustain connections, explore the quest for safe spaces, and seek out alternative pathways for creative expression. By integrating these theoretical perspectives, this thesis provides a comprehensive understanding of the underground electronic music scene in Itaewon, emphasizing its significance within the LGBTQ+ community. It illuminates the transformative power of inclusive cultural spaces, the role of music in identity formation, and the resilience of communities in the face of adversity. The findings contribute to urban anthropology and our understanding of contested spaces, cultural expressions, and the ongoing evolution of underground scenes.MasteroppgaveSANT350MASV-SAN

The Influence of Family on Justice-Oriented Young Women of Colors' Understandings of Oppression and Imaginings of Liberation

The current study grounds itself in the voices of self-identified, justice-oriented, YWOC (N = 7) who participated in a community leadership program. In concert with their peers, these YWOC received training on how to design and implement a social change project in their communities. I explore these young womens’ perceptions of how their experiences with and within families influence their understandings of social oppression, their commitments to social change, and their imaginings of liberation. Empirical investigations of the influence of family on sociopolitical understandings has tended to examine family influence in conjunction with other relational contexts (e.g., community, peers). Relatively few empirical investigations exclusively examine how family as a context informs YWOC’s social analysis (Diemer et al., 2006; Gordon, 2008; O’Connor, 1997). Furthermore, family context is usually studied in ways that under consider the realities that families and young women of color possess multiple identities (e.g., class, race, immigration status) that have implications for how power is experienced and understood within and outside of the family. To address my research question, I use a within group (i.e., emic) exploratory qualitative approach to examine how justice-oriented YWOC (N = 7) describe the ways their families inform their understandings and imaginings of oppression and liberation. This study revealed that macro-level sociopolitical dynamics (e.g., oppression, liberation) play out through family relations. When oppression plays out in sites of love/care (e.g., family) we are reminded of the contradictions/dualities of power. Within family, power can be used to both maintain oppression and foster liberation. The study’s sample describes various instances in which they describe the ability of their family members to do both.PHDEducation & PsychologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/163068/1/castag_1.pd

Beyond rules: How institutional cultures and climate governance interact

Institutions have a central role in climate change governance. But while there is a flourishing literature on institutions' formal rules, processes, and organizational forms, scholars lament a relative lack of attention to institutions' informal side; their cultures. It is important to study institutions' cultures because it is through culture that people relate to institutional norms and rules in taking climate action. This review uncovers what work has been done on institutional cultures and climate change, discerns common themes around which this scholarship coheres, and advances and argument for why institutional cultures matter. We employed a systematic literature review to assemble a set of 54 articles with a shared concern for how climate change and institutional cultures concurrently affect each other. The articles provided evidence of a nascent field, emerging over the past 5–10 years and fragmented across literatures. This field draws on diverse concepts of institutionalism for revealing quite different expressions of culture, and is mostly grounded in empirical studies. These disparate studies compellingly demonstrate, from different perspectives, that institutional cultures do indeed matter for implementing climate governance. Indeed, the articles converge in providing empirical evidence of eight key sites of interaction between climate change and institutional cultures: worldviews, values, logics, gender, risk acceptance, objects, power, and relationality. These eight sites are important foci for examining and effecting changes to institutions and their cultures; showing how institutional cultures shape responses to climate change, and how climate change shapes institutional cultures.publishedVersio

A Comparative Study Based on Provincial Performance

This thesis attempts to transfer the spotlight upon the political issue about democratization in China to something else that has not been spared enough attention yet. Here it refers to the transformation of governance mode. The rather rapid industrialization and urbanization in the process of modernization in China does not aggravate the swelling of bureaucratic system to the extent that largely increases financial burden, internal disorder, and inefficiency. The maintenance of a stable and controllable government on both national and local level benefits from the transformation of governance mode from command mode to network mode

Self-Efficacy and Adult Development

A major theme in the contemporary study of human development across the life span is that people have the capacity for personal agency. Innumerable writers emphasize that individuals can exert intentional influence over their experiences and actions, the circumstances they encounter, the skills they acquire, and thus ultimately the course of their development

Networking for the internationalization of SMEs: evidence from the Chinese context

This research emphasizes the active influence of a firm on network outcomes through its networking behaviour: the antecedent efforts undertaken by the firm to develop, manage, and leverage its networks for actual value creation in enabling/driving internationalization. Networking behaviour at the level of the firm is investigated as a core explanatory factor in the internationalization of SMEs in this study. The influence of the key decision-maker on the networking behaviour of SMEs is also examined. Eight qualitative case studies and a quantitative survey were conducted respectively in two stages to draw empirical evidence from the Chinese context. The in-depth case studies provide rich information about the latent factors (variables) of the constructs of the study and their associations, from which hypotheses for quantitative research are formulated. Case findings also support more comprehensive interpretation of the quantitative results. Quantitative analysis of survey data allows statistical validation and generalization of the findings. Findings of key behavioural aspects of networking concerning the likelihood of SMEs achieving (rapid) internationalization are derived. Network resources are identified to have possibly negative in addition to positive influences on internationalization. The findings highlight the significance of deliberate networking behaviour undertaken by a firm in pursuit of rapid internationalization. The research conceptualizes a precise causal model capturing the networking behaviour of the firm as antecedent to explaining and predicting network outcomes in the specific context of internationalization. The research advances an integrative perspective – with theoretical underpinnings from the network perspective, the internationalization model and the resource-based view – to provide more comprehensive understanding pertaining to networks and the internationalization of SMEs