12 research outputs found
Data and the city â accessibility and openness. a cybersalon paper on open data
This paper showcases examples of bottomâup open data and smart city applications and identifies lessons for future such efforts. Examples include Changify, a neighbourhood-based platform for residents, businesses, and companies; Open Sensors, which provides APIs to help businesses, startups, and individuals develop applications for the Internet of Things; and Cybersalonâs Hackney Treasures. a location-based mobile app that uses Wikipedia entries geolocated in Hackney borough to map notable local residents. Other experiments with sensors and open data by Cybersalon members include Ilze Black and Nanda Khaorapapong's The Breather, a "breathing" balloon that uses high-end, sophisticated sensors to make air quality visible; and James Moulding's AirPublic, which measures pollution levels. Based on Cybersalon's experience to date, getting data to the people is difficult, circuitous, and slow, requiring an intricate process of leadership, public relations, and perseverance. Although there are myriad tools and initiatives, there is no one solution for the actual transfer of that data
CyberParks: The interface between people, places and technology
This open access book is about public open spaces, about people, and about the relationship between them and the role of technology in this relationship. It is about different approaches, methods, empirical studies, and concerns about a phenomenon that is increasingly being in the centre of sciences and strategies â the penetration of digital technologies in the urban space. As the main outcome of the CyberParks Project, this book aims at fostering the understanding about the current and future interactions of the nexus people, public spaces and technology. It addresses a wide range of challenges and multidisciplinary perspectives on emerging phenomena related to the penetration of technology in peopleâs lifestyles - affecting therefore the whole society, and with this, the production and use of public spaces. Cyberparks coined the term cyberpark to describe the mediated public space, that emerging type of urban spaces where nature and cybertechnologies blend together to generate hybrid experiences and enhance quality of life
Human-Nature Interactions
This edited volume aims to widen the discussion about the diversity of human-nature relationships and valuation methods and to stimulate new perspective that are needed to build a more sustainable future, especially in face of ongoing socio-environmental changes. Conceptual and empirical approaches, including qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methodologies have been used to highlight the importance of an integrative understanding of socio-ecological systems, where healthy ecosystems underpin the quality of life and societal activities largely drive environmental changes. Readers will obtain a comprehensive overview of the many and diverse ways the relationships between people and nature can be characterized. This includes understanding how people assign values to nature, discuss how human-nature interactions are shaped and provide examples of how these values and interactions can be systematically assessed across different land systems in Europe and beyond. This open access book is produced by internationally recognized scientists in the field but written in an accessible format to be of interest to a large audience, including prospective students, lecturers, young professionals and scientists embarking to the interdisciplinary field of socio-ecological research and environmental valuation
Rethinking the risk matrix
So far risk has been mostly defined as the expected value of a loss, mathematically PL (being P the probability of an adverse event and L the loss incurred as a consequence of the adverse event). The so called risk matrix follows from such definition.
This definition of risk is justified in a long term âmanagerialâ perspective, in which it is conceivable to distribute the effects of an adverse event on a large number of subjects or a large number of recurrences. In other words, this definition is mostly justified on frequentist terms. Moreover, according to this definition, in two extreme situations (high-probability/low-consequence and low-probability/high-consequence), the estimated risk is low. This logic is against the principles of sustainability and continuous improvement, which should impose instead both a continuous search for lower probabilities of adverse events (higher and higher reliability) and a continuous search for lower impact of adverse events (in accordance with the fail-safe principle).
In this work a different definition of risk is proposed, which stems from the idea of safeguard: (1Risk)=(1P)(1L). According to this definition, the risk levels can be considered low only when both the probability of the adverse event and the loss are small.
Such perspective, in which the calculation of safeguard is privileged to the calculation of risk, would possibly avoid exposing the Society to catastrophic consequences, sometimes due to wrong or oversimplified use of probabilistic models. Therefore, it can be seen as the citizenâs perspective to the definition of risk
The (un)learning of whiteness and its relationship with being-white and developing social justice projects in Physical Education.
Research has shown that the whitewashed Physical Education (PE) curriculumâs primary mode of teaching through social interaction is systemically racialised, which, in turn, racially constrains access to the profession. My Thesis uses a critically informed qualitative approach to map and explore a terrain of whiteness across the domain of PE-an interdisciplinary study of whitely thinkingâs role in racialising a segment of the PE professional pathway. The theoretical framework builds on the literature that most white people conceive an essentialist view of racism. In contrast, people who experience racism see it as structural and systemic, which creates a differential perception of its consequences. The critical approach uses a notion of widening the application of racisms and is defined as all the ways that racism is delivered to racialise a social interaction. Racisms support the noetic and cognitively established theorising, cultural schemas, racial frames, and whiteness ideologies. The expression of racisms, underpinned by whitely thinking, produces layers of racialisation, resulting in mental trauma and precarious life courses for those it discriminates against. The term constrained inclusion is introduced to further the role of individuals in racialising social interactions. Using data from semi-structured interviews with white PE students and their academic course leaders at English universities, the Thesis maps experiences of engaging with social justice projects regarding their racial knowledge and empathy. It presents evidence that students arrive at their university with a whitely way of thinking, speaking and decision-making. By combining the perspectives of students and course leaders, the Thesis demonstrates that social justice-informed teaching is broadly present within the curriculum. However, its orientation in engaging students to develop passive non-racism is limited, with implications for the persistence of the PE profession recognised as being-white. An active and actionable anti-racism strategy is needed.
Moreover, although the participants say they do not see race, the analysis shows they continue to think in whitely ways. The participants cognitively adopting a âcloakingâ of whitely thinking to hide their engagement with racism(s). Furthermore, the social justice curriculum projects gave these students increased social awareness that aided them in cloaking their whiteness perspectives.
The Thesis expands on research that shows white university students resist equality initiatives they perceive as endangering their entitlements introducing the concept of constrained inclusion. The Thesis supports observations that students employ racialised tropes in class conversations. However, whitely thinking goes beyond the university modules and teaching sessions. The findings confirm that critical education on racism is not a priority for HE's PE degrees. Frequently, the teaching content of PE courses aligns with the course team's preferences, reflecting both an issue of staff (lack of) diversity and those housed within the confines of being-white usually do not examine the costs of a racialised society. My Thesis proposes to disrupt the profession's self-perpetuating dominant whiteness, and a series of recommendations are made. I present my research agenda to follow this Thesis for developing social justice projects around active and actionable anti-racism