The brain of the smart transportation system : exploring the role of future expectations and sociotechnical imaginaries in cutting-edge science and technology policymaking in China

The brain of the smart transportation system: exploring the role of future expectations and sociotechnical imaginaries in cutting-edge science and technology policymaking In recent years, Big Data has developed rapidly, improving the efficiency and safety of the transportation system, but varied understandings of Big Data have shaped contextualised expectations and imaginaries, which has introduced new tension in the policymaking of technology. Additionally the mixed use of concepts such as “future expectation” and “sociotechnical imaginary” in future-oriented STS studies makes the relevant case studies unclear at the theoretical level. Thus, this thesis endeavours to distinguish these concepts within a specific situated context, to shed light on how they work in China’s science and technology policymaking process, and to understand the nature of Big Data. To do so it explores a new technology that emerged in China since the 2000s – the Smart Transportation System – a hybrid of the traditional transportation system and Big Data. This thesis draws on a mixed-methods approach, including an analysis of governmental policy documents from 2016 to 2020, 29 semi-structured qualitative interviews with engineers, academics, and local government officials, conducted in seven Chinese cities. This thesis contributes three advances to knowledge of future-oriented studies, science and technology policymaking studies, and Big Data studies in the Chinese context: 1) by showing that future expectation is related to the paradigms and the interests of two scientific communities of the Smart Transportation System field, while sociotechnical imaginary links to the epistemology and knowledge used in the decision-making process; 2) by outlining a two-way, dynamic circle in which the sociotechnical imaginary of the central government creates an intended institutional void, leaving space for local governments interpretations, and these interpretations in turn drive the birth of a new sociotechnical imaginary of central government; 3) by furthering our understanding of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence via revisiting the nature of Big Data from the perspective of traditional Chinese culture

Balance of Threat, Balance of Mind: Nuclear Rivalry and Arms Control

Under what conditions will rivals choose to accept mutual constraints, limitations, and even reductions on their capabilities for waging war? Contemporary political science lacks a strong theoretical basis for understanding this behavior, despite the fact that states in the modern era continue to negotiate and enter into arms control arrangements. This study contributes a theoretical framework and empirical analysis identifying the conditions under which nuclear-armed rivals might choose to curb their deadly arsenals. Traditional theories grounded in classical deterrence theory suggest arms control serves to preserve a deterrent status quo and prevent expensive and destabilizing arms competition; it should therefore only be expected when rivals feel secure in the strength and effectiveness of their respective retaliatory capabilities. This study suggests a more complicated (yet still predictive) causal logic in which this balance of force is dynamically interactive with militarized hostility and rivals convergence or divergence in how they think — both normatively and instrumentally — about the role of nuclear weapons in their national security. The argument is illustrated through qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) of bilateral arms control interactions among nuclear-armed strategic rivals from 1949 to the present. Further analysis is provided through in-depth case studies of arms control dynamics between three pairs of contemporary nuclear rivals — the United States and Russia, India and Pakistan, and the United States and China

Proceedings of the 9th Annual International Conference of the International Institute for Infrastructure Renewal and Reconstruction

Proceedings of The 9th Annual International Conference of the International Institute for Infrastructure Renewal and Reconstruction. The conference was held at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, Australia from 8-10 July 2013. The event title for the 9th Annual Conference was: Risk-informed Disaster Management: Planning for Response, Recovery and Resilience. All papers were double blind peer reviewed and the Proceedings were published online in March 2015

Risk Management of the “Belt and Road Initiative” Projects – An Empirical Study on Investments of the Chinese State- Owned-Banks in the Region

This thesis attempts to examine the current risk issues of state-owned banks for their involvement in the ‘Belt and Road’ projects, and to develop a unique risk management framework. It is found in the literature that financial policies and intermediaries play a fundamental role in cross-border investment and requires careful consideration of appropriate methods and regulation instruments, as cross-border investment always involves risks. Developing countries with relatively immature market systems may still need policy-based financial provision at the present stage. Together with an evaluation of traditional measures adopted by firms involved in OFDI, the study tries to identify the potential risk factors that affect BRI projects by looking at various contemporary risk factors. The investigation of the relations between SOBs and development finance that has been overlooked in the existing literature becomes the foundation of this research, whilst thorough evaluations are given to the challenging issues among these projects.This research adopts qualitative research methods, in which the adoption of case studies and interviews as the primary approaches, combined with documentary analysis throughout the research process. The carefully selected cases and correspondent analysis of parallel comparisons provide essential clues for identifying, classifying and prioritizing the risk factors associated with the BRI project. This study aims to reveal the particularities of the state-owned investments of BRI project financing to achieve the research objectives by connecting the theoretical construction with risk management issues. This respect goes beyond the traditional perspective of overseas investment risk management as it endows the classical theory with specific implications under empirical evidence

The Protection, Designation and Management of Cultural Routes: A Case Study of the Tea & Horse Road in China

Cultural routes are a relatively new, and much discussed concept in heritage designation and management. The extent to which this concept provides an effective theoretical framework for management of diverse sites, monuments, and landscapes, encompassing multiple stakeholders and values, is under debate. The research explores the so-called Tea & Horse Road (THR), which stretched from southwestern China to the South Asian subcontinent. It is an intriguing example of a historic network of interactions, combining multidimensional issues of protection, designation, and management, within a challenging contemporary social and political context. Using literature reviews, case studies, semi-structured interviews, and field investigations, the thesis focuses on the THR within Yunnan Province in China. The selected case study was divided into three categories: productive regions, transfer regions and consuming regions, in order to both articulate the assorted THR heritage, and to explore relevant crucial issues: the nature of the physical remains; their integrity and authenticity; the potential and impacts of tourism; local, regional and state-based values; and the prospective management, protection and designation of these areas. The research concludes that introducing the concept of cultural routes enables these multifaceted sites and landscapes to be integrated within a wider systematic framework, which offers possible approaches to top-down preservation and management of the THR. However, the research also reveals the tensions between cultural route and cultural landscape approaches, with the latter far easier to implement at a local/regional level. More broadly, it also raises questions about the implementation of cultural routes as a nomination strategy when dealing with diverse heritage resources, landscapes and communities

WSN based sensing model for smart crowd movement with identification: a conceptual model

With the advancement of IT and increase in world population rate, Crowd Management (CM) has become a subject undergoing intense study among researchers. Technology provides fast and easily available means of transport and, up-to-date information access to the people that causes crowd at public places. This imposes a big challenge for crowd safety and security at public places such as airports, railway stations and check points. For example, the crowd of pilgrims during Hajj and Ummrah while crossing the borders of Makkah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. To minimize the risk of such crowd safety and security identification and verification of people is necessary which causes unwanted increment in processing time. It is observed that managing crowd during specific time period (Hajj and Ummrah) with identification and verification is a challenge. At present, many advanced technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT) are being used to solve the crowed management problem with minimal processing time. In this paper, we have presented a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) based conceptual model for smart crowd movement with minimal processing time for people identification. This handles the crowd by forming groups and provides proactive support to handle them in organized manner. As a result, crowd can be managed to move safely from one place to another with group identification. The group identification minimizes the processing time and move the crowd in smart way