50,910 research outputs found
Arctic Vessel Traffic in the Bering Strait
This brief examines the risks posed by increasing vessel traffic and outlines a series of mitigation measures that authorities can implement to protect all those who depend on the Bering Straitâwildlife and indigenous communities, as well as ships and their crews
A visible geography of invisible journeys: Central American migration and the politics of survival
Human rights groups have called undocumented Central American migrants the âinvisible victimsâ of criminal violence in Mexico. However, the geography of the unauthorised migration route through Mexico is highly visible; its location, protocols and violent practices constitute common knowledge in the communities through which it cuts its path. This paper examines the visual cues of the route. Images of places, such as the trailhead, the river at the borders, the migrant shelter and the train yard, provide focal points that orient migrants to the physical terrain. These images also orient activists, providing potent symbols for political contestation in favour of migrantsâ rights. However, visibility attracts criminal gangs who rob, kidnap and rape migrants, and the gaze of state officials who detain and deport migrants. Thus, this paper traces how geographic icons become beacons to migrants, activists, criminal predators and state actors, and it examines the nature of information and representation under this strategic interaction. It examines how victims and perpetrators become visible to one another
From smart and corporate to urban and edgy: revitalising organisations in turbulent environments
Purpose: This paper aims to address issues surrounding the revitalising of organisations in turbulent environments.
Design/methodology/approach: The paper contains a discussion of relevant issues and presentation of research which considers how leaders today are choosing to function in a very uncertain environment, that of higher education.
Findings: The characteristics of urban and edgy organisations were all found to be evident in the leaders style in higher education. However, it was identified that this type of leadership rests on two critical axisâKnowledge management (shared and open) and the overarching style of leadership (empowerment and encouragement).
Research limitations/implications: This work is introductory and used a small sample as a pilotâfurther more extensive work is needed in this area.
Practical implications: This paper has introduced the idea of a new label for organisations which find themselves to be so full of diversity and differences that they can be characterised as being âon the edgeâ of dangerâyet these organisations have found a way to be something which is separate from that of the urban characterâimportant, flexible, dynamic, and playing a central role in development of new ideas.
Originality/value: The contribution made to the discipline of leadership is the introduction of a new way of looking at organisationâthe work offers new ways of looking at established ideas, through new lenses which may assist leaders and all who work in large organisations
Travel Behaviour Response to Major Transport System Disruptions: Implications for Smarter Resilience Planning
No abstract available
Game Theory Models for the Verification of the Collective Behaviour of Autonomous Cars
The collective of autonomous cars is expected to generate almost optimal
traffic. In this position paper we discuss the multi-agent models and the
verification results of the collective behaviour of autonomous cars. We argue
that non-cooperative autonomous adaptation cannot guarantee optimal behaviour.
The conjecture is that intention aware adaptation with a constraint on
simultaneous decision making has the potential to avoid unwanted behaviour. The
online routing game model is expected to be the basis to formally prove this
conjecture.Comment: In Proceedings FVAV 2017, arXiv:1709.0212
Ancient Cartographies as a Basis for Geolocation Models in Public Space: The Case of Giambattista Nolli and its Heritage Application
In 1748, the architect and surveyor Giambattista Nolli mapped an abstract reality of the city of Rome. As a challenge to the inherited projections, it represented the city mixing streets, halls, corridors, churches, baths and markets as part of a unique public space network. A new way to design public space and rethink the whole urban system was opened by the possibility of containing in these representations a single layer with all kinds of public space (including the interior of public buildings). Despite this, Nolli's plan remained as a useless instrument since the hegemony of automobile mobility appeared as a pre-eminent system. This research tries to understand how the application of the ancient cartographies' methodology can improve the pedestrian mobility of historic cities by means of enhancing the graphic value of the system of Giambattista Nolli. Nowadays, free public space is represented as empty and built ones, as solid. This proposal would revert this reified conception of the city, understanding this baroque representation as an instrument of identification and assessment of the transitional heritage. The clues unveiled by Nolli seem to be able to integrate the plans of public buildings within the urban tissue, which would result in a step towards the full integration of cartography and mobility. The success of the comprehensive tools offered by large servers such as Alphabet inc. (Google) or Bing Maps confirm the suitability of the combination of new technologies and Big Data with urban planning, reaching the synchronisation of Smart Cities. Nowadays, open public space can be 'walked in' from any electronic device, consequently, the application of the "Nolli methodology" would implement the model of urban geolocation with the assimilation of inner public spaces. In the creation of a great global map of the public space, a chimaera could be intuited. This would be discussed within a tangible reality: every open public space is already housed in the Big Data and it is accessible through geolocation tools. The inclusion of the of the public buildings' interiors would contribute to develop a greater permeability between city and citizens. Furthermore, this representation would optimize pedestrian travel times and would be able to expand the geolocation system network as a documentary repository
Matryoshka journeys: im/mobility during migration
Acts of mobility require corresponding acts of immobility (or suspended mobility). Migrant journeys are not only about movement. Indeed, in the present policy context, this is ever more true. Whether a migrant is contained within a hidden compartment, detained by migration authorities, waiting for remittances to continue, or marooned within a drifting boat at sea, these moments of immobility have become an inherent part of migrant journeys especially as states have increased controls at and beyond their borders. Migrants themselves view this fragmentation â the stopping, waiting and containment â as part of the journey to be endured. Drawing on the authorsâ fieldwork in Central America and Southern Europe, this paper destabilises the boundary between transit and settlement, speaking to a larger policy discourse that justifies detentions and deportations from the United States and countries on the periphery of Europe. We argue that migrantsâ nested experiences of these âmatryoshka journeysâ reveal how increased migration controls encourage them not only to take greater risks during the journey, but also to forfeit their agency at opportune moments. In turn, states exploit images of such im/mobility during the journey in order to emphasise the irrational risks migrants take in order to traverse seas and deserts and to cloak their own border policies in a humanitarian discourse of rescue
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