Improving Robustness in Social Fabric-based Cultural Algorithms

In this thesis, we propose two new approaches which aim at improving robustness in social fabric-based cultural algorithms. Robustness is one of the most significant issues when designing evolutionary algorithms. These algorithms should be capable of adapting themselves to various search landscapes. In the first proposed approach, we utilize the dynamics of social interactions in solving complex and multi-modal problems. In the literature of Cultural Algorithms, Social fabric has been suggested as a new method to use social phenomena to improve the search process of CAs. In this research, we introduce the Irregular Neighborhood Restructuring as a new adaptive method to allow individuals to rearrange their neighborhoods to avoid local optima or stagnation during the search process. In the second approach, we apply the concept of Confidence Interval from Inferential Statistics to improve the performance of knowledge sources in the Belief Space. This approach aims at improving the robustness and accuracy of the normative knowledge source. It is supposed to be more stable against sudden changes in the values of incoming solutions. The IEEE-CEC2015 benchmark optimization functions are used to evaluate our proposed methods against standard versions of CA and Social Fabric. IEEE-CEC2015 is a set of 15 multi-modal and hybrid functions which are used as a standard benchmark to evaluate optimization algorithms. We observed that both of the proposed approaches produce promising results on the majority of benchmark functions. Finally, we state that our proposed strategies enhance the robustness of the social fabric-based CAs against challenges such as multi-modality, copious local optima, and diverse landscapes

Urban Resilience Thinking for Municipalities

This document was prepared as a contribution to the Department of Science and Technology’s (DST’s) Grand Challenge on Global Change and as a complement to flagship initiatives such as the South African Risk and Vulnerability Atlas project (Archer, et al., 2010). The Global Change Grand Challenge is aimed at “supporting knowledge generation and technological innovation that will enable South Africa, Africa, and the world, to respond to global environmental change, including climate change” (Archer, et al., 2010, p. ii). While the Grand Challenge highlights the importance of science in supporting South Africa’s response to global change, it extends beyond a purely biophysical focus to acknowledge the importance of the social sciences. There is a clear understanding that the most compelling responses to global change will come through the combined efforts of the natural and social sciences. The DST therefore supports a number of research programmes across South Africa that draw on a wide range of scientific and academic fields in responding to specific challenges of global change across rural and urban –South Africa. One of the key thematic areas supported through the Grand Challenge is “urban resilience”. This is not at the expense of work on rural areas, as there are also a number of research programmes targeting rural South Africa, but it is recognition of both the threats posed by poorly managed urban areas and of the opportunities that towns and cities offer for greater resilience and sustainability.Global Change and Sustainability Research Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand, the Department of Science and Technology, and the National Research Foundation, South Afric

The Information Society: Technological, socio-economic and cultural aspects - Prolegomena for a sustainability-oriented ethics of ICTs.

This thesis studies the enabling properties of ICT and their effects and potential for social change, and prepares the ground for a sustainability-oriented ethico-political assessment of this technology. It primarily builds on interdisciplinary scholarship to describe and explain the multifaceted co-evolution between the global deployment of ICTs and the emergence of the Information Society, understood as a socioeconomic restructuring of capitalism. Beyond the role of ICTs in this regime transition, the thesis delivers other philosophical insights about crucial aspects of ICT development, applications and management. These include arguments about how we should conceptualize ICTs on the basis of their different roles in extending human communication and in performing or facilitating the remote control of humans and animals, machines and systems operations; about the entanglement between telecommunications, transport networks, urban development and work and organization; and about the relations between ICTs, culture and human values. Examples are offered to illustrate the potential that these empirical and philosophical lessons may hold for the construction of a framework for the ethico-political assessment of ICTs

Congolese Cultural Landscapes, Transnational Networks, and Identity Formation in Milwaukee

Following national trends, between 2000 and 2010, the city of Milwaukee\u27s foreign-born African population doubled. Previous research attributes this population growth to various socio-economic and political factors on the African continent, the United State\u27s implementation of the Diversity Visa Lottery (DVL) program, and perceived economic opportunities. Applying a mixed methods approach, I analyze the spatial distribution of foreign-born Africans in Milwaukee County to contextualize a case study of people from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) worshipping at Milwaukee\u27s International Lutheran Church of Zion (Zion Church). Using information gathered from participant observation, semi-structured interviews, census and demographic data, I deconstruct the densely scaled networks and cultural landscapes connecting the DRC and Milwaukee. By following the migration paths of DVL winners and refugees I demonstrate the vital role that thematic and territorial networks at Zion Church play in fostering transnational Congolese identities in Milwaukee. Transnational theory maintains that transnational migrants purposefully build active socio-cultural, political, and economic networks that cross the boundaries of a person\u27s country of origin and host country; daily life occurs in both home and host countries as transnational networks shrink the perceived distance between places. Transnational networks also are influential in the creation of cultural landscapes. Cultural landscapes, either physical (e.g., a building or neighborhood) or conceptual (e.g., a cultural tradition), are organizational tools used by geographers to understand how groups build strong socio-spatial boundaries through their actions, beliefs, and culture. Despite being relatively hidden, Congolese worshippers at Zion Church are constructing intricate cultural landscapes at the building they worship in through the rituals of their church service, the expectations of community participation, and the processes of marriage. These different networks contribute to the formation of a group identity specific to worshippers at Zion Church. This research contributes to the growing body of literature on African migration to the United States. The mixed methods approach visually illustrates spatial distribution which in conjunction with ethnographic interviews, participant observation, and a textual analysis of cultural symbols, offers a rich description of the early processes of community building for an African community in a mid-sized American city

Growth and expansion in post-war urban design strategies: C. A. Doxiadis and the first strategic plan for Riyadh Saudi Arabia (1968-1972)

This dissertation resituates C. A. Doxiadis in Post-War urban design history with a detailed examination of how urban growth and change was addressed by urban design strategies as applied in the master plan for Riyadh Saudi Arabia, undertaken between 1968 and 1972. The Riyadh master plan commission is important within Doxiadis' career, occurring in the midst of his prolific writing projects and approximately eight years after he completed the Islamabad master plan, his most renowned project. Most Post-War architects focused on the socio-spatial components of urban life, elaborating architectural projects that intertwined transportation, infrastructure, and concentrated on mass housing strategies. This dissertation argues that Doxiadis' contribution to urban design theory and practice during the Post-War period was to define a rational scientific methodology for urban design that would restructure settlements to enable urban expansion and change while addressing issues of community building, governance and processes of development. The applied urban design for Riyadh Saudi Arabia strongly exemplifies Doxiadis' rational strategy and methodology as outlined in Ekistics theory and the conceptual model of Dynapolis. The comparative analysis examines how Doxiadis applies the Dynapolis model in the urban spatial planning of Riyadh to organize urban territory at the macro and local urban scales, define neighborhood communities, and connect the new master plan to the existing spatial territory of the city. The longitudinal analysis contrasts the Doxiadis master plan, Riyadh's first urban development strategy, to the most recent comprehensive approach MEDSTAR to understand how the Doxaidis' urban design has sustained its spatial continuity over time. This dissertation makes two significant contributions. The first is to broaden knowledge of Post-War urban design specific to the spatial problem of urban expansion and change, and second to resituate Doxiadis within the Post-War history of urban design specifically revealing his previously unrecognized project of the Riyadh master plan undertaken from 1968-1972.Ph.D.Committee Chair: Richard Dagenhart; Committee Co-Chair: Dr. John Peponis; Committee Member: Dr. Gary Hack; Committee Member: Dr. Perry Yang; Committee Member: Michael Dobbin

Mobile Passages: Unpacking the Seasonal Lifestyle from Quebec to Topeekeegee Yugnee (TY) RV Park, Broward County, Southeast Florida

This study seeks to investigate the lived experiences of multi-locational actors and the production of unique forms of socialization and community using the seasonal movements and settlements of the Québécois population (also referred to as “Floribécois”) in Broward County, Florida during the winter months. This study employs interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) which is theoretically rooted in hermeneutic phenomenology. IPA recognizes that there are shared perspectives and lived experiences of a group of people about a concept or a phenomenon. This analysis comprises of collectively shared meanings, while being mindful of the unique experience of a single individual and/or subgroup. The IPA methodology is especially applicable in this study because its emphasis is on the construction of meaning, context, and various aspects of everyday life practices within social phenomena. The findings of this thesis tie together meanings from the narratives. What emerged were themes of familiarity, consistency and reliability vis-a-vis space, a relationship between spontaneity/adventure and limitations of sameness, repetition, and routine in relation to the concept of “freedom”. The narrative of mobility as freedom in these cases converged to stories about having a place where individuals carve out private spaces and have “freedom” of choice about everyday routines. Such different practices and subjectivities display another way of interacting with existing forms of space and mobility, unlocking lifestyles untethered from the restraint of existing theories. In sum, this study reveals how a new sense of self is formed and redefined, and how mobility and space configurations are constantly shifting within existing structures

HISTORY URBANISM RESILIENCE: Book of Abstracts

The 17th conference (2016, Delft) of the International Planning History Society (IPHS) and its proceedings place presentations from different continents and on varied topics side by side, providing insight into state-of-the art research in the field of planning history and offering a glimpse of new approaches, themes, papers and books to come. Book of Abstracts