The Challenges of collaboration and democratic participation in turbulent and unsettled times

This paper proposes new key ways to thinking about self-organisation in cities in what, I suggest, are increasingly unsettled and turbulent times. The importance of thinking about self-organisation in cities is all the more salient in the current economic and social context where in many parts of the world there is a withdrawal by the state from public involvement and expenditure, which is impacting on urban citizens, particularly those who are vulnerable, in increasing negative ways. Self-organisation is thus an important and key direction for the future, if cities are to remain inclusive, just and responsive to local needs. Yet such self-organisation can only be truly meaningful and effective if it is conducted collaboratively and democratically, involving as many people as possible, particularly those whose voices are not often heard. In so doing, it is also important to recognise that such involvement and democratic participation are not always consensual; rather conflict is inevitable and potentially positive, as people learnt to recognise their differences, which are often implicated in power, and to negotiate solutions together

“Mad as Hell”: The Corruption of Personal Humanity in Network through Satire

A film has the power to connect to its viewers through dark or absurd humor, revealing truths we may not want to face. My paper explores how Network shows the corruption of different types of people through satire

Liquid passions: bodies, publics and city waters

This article explores water’s capacities as a vibrant matter with specific properties that generates passions, attachments and a sense of belonging, and which enrols bodies in new connections, socialities, alliances and politics in unpredictable ways. Based on research into practices and engagements with water in a large urban public space the paper builds on studies of blue space. It concludes that water has the capacity to enhance a sense of well-being in those that swim in it and to mobilise a very particular sense of embodiment which gives this form of public space its distinctiveness constituting new forms of sociality and connections amongst diverse individuals. It seeks to do this by paying attention to the experiences of things themselves and the active participation of nonhuman forces in events and the ‘vital materiality’ that runs through and across bodies both human and non-human. The article also explores water’s capacity to be constituted and defined by experts as dangerous and risky matter, and to thus engender political associations and connections amongst diverse groups who seek to oppose such expert interventions

Homeless women: A social, economic and historical analysis

This study of single homeless women looks at the way our society defines and generates "needs", at the way housing is provided and allocated to exclude specific forms of households, and at the experiences of a particular group - single women - for whom the impact of these processes is dire. The thesis falls into two parts. In the first I look at definitions of homelessness and show how homelessness is a socially and historically determined concept which has specific implications for women which derive from their role as housewives and mothers within the family. I argue that definitions of homelessness have important implications for both research and policy in this area. The subsequent two chapters look at single women's homelessness historically, and show both how current ideologies of female homelessness and provisions for single homeless women have their origins in earlier periods, and also how these ideologies and provision have changed. The final chapter of the first part of the thesis analyses the nature of housing provision for single people and women specifically and theorises why housing has predominantly been produced for and allocated to the nuclear family household. The second part of the thesis is based on interviews with 160 women in London who were found in a range of inadequate housing situations, and who were defined in this study as homeless. The objective of this part of the study is threefold: first, to understand and locate single women's homelessness within an analysis of patriarchal and capitalist relations in our society, and the sexual division of labour. Second, to consider the nature of-homelessness amongst women, that is, whether the single female homeless constitute a homogeneous or heterogeneous group. Third, to evaluate the usefulness of the term of homelessness in particular where single women are concerned. I conclude with a consideration of these issues, and an analysis of why homelessness is not currently treated as a matter for great public concern

Can people identify original and manipulated photos of real-world scenes?

Advances in digital technology mean that the creation of visually compelling photographic fakes is growing at an incredible speed. The prevalence of manipulated photos in our everyday lives invites an important, yet largely unanswered, question: Can people detect photo forgeries? Previous research using simple computer-generated stimuli suggests people are poor at detecting geometrical inconsistencies within a scene. We do not know, however, whether such limitations also apply to real-world scenes that contain common properties that the human visual system is attuned to processing. In two experiments we asked people to detect and locate manipulations within images of real-world scenes. Subjects demonstrated a limited ability to detect original and manipulated images. Furthermore, across both experiments, even when subjects correctly detected manipulated images, they were often unable to locate the manipulation. People’s ability to detect manipulated images was positively correlated with the extent of disruption to the underlying structure of the pixels in the photo. We also explored whether manipulation type and individual differences were associated with people’s ability to identify manipulations. Taken together, our findings show, for the first time, that people have poor ability to identify whether a real-world image is original or has been manipulated. The results have implications for professionals working with digital images in legal, media, and other domains

Platform urbanism, smartphone applications and valuing data in a smart city

Recent scholarship on smart cities and platform urbanism has explored the very wide range of data harvested from urban environments by digital devices of many kinds, analysing how not only efficiencies but also profits are sought through the extraction, circulation, transformation, commodification, integration, and re‐use of data. Much of that data is generated by smartphone applications. This paper looks at the design of a group of eight smartphone apps by a range of different actors in Milton Keynes, a small UK city with a large number of smart city initiatives. The apps are understood as a co‐constitutive interface between data circulations and embodied users. The paper focuses specifically on the data that the apps generated and shared and on how the app designers anticipated that the data would create different kinds of value for embodied app users. While some data circulations were understood as ways of generating financial value, the paper argues that a number of other forms of value were assumed in the app design. The paper identifies two of these, which it terms normative values and interactive values. It examines how the data mobilised by the smart city apps enacts particular versions of these values, and how those values co‐constitute specific kinds of bodies, agencies, and geographies in digitally mediated cities

Is the ANS linked to mathematics performance?

Leibovich, Katzin, Harel, & Henik argue persuasively that researchers should not assume ANS tasks harness an innate sense of number. However, some studies have reported a causal link between ANS tasks and mathematics performance, implicating the ANS in the development of numerical skills. Here we report a p-curve analysis which indicates that these experimental studies do not contain evidential value