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In Praise of Diversity in Participatory Heritage Planning Empowered by Artificial Intelligence: Windcatchers in Yazd
Get PDFHeritage planning is changing, in both theory and practice. There is greater attention to the cultural significance (values and attributes) conveyed to a heritage property, rather than focusing on the property alone. Identifying and revealing this cultural significance has become a critical step in heritage planning. Moreover, international guidelines increasingly encourage public participation in defining the cultural significance of heritage sites. However, effectively involving diverse stakeholders and capturing the cultural significance they attribute to heritage remains a challenge, particularly when dealing with extensive datasets and multiple stakeholders. Although automated methods have shown potential in fields like digital humanities, their application in heritage planning is still limited. This article explores the innovative use of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly text classification analysis, to analyze unstructured textual data (e.g., policy documents, literature, and social media) to uncover the cultural significance of built heritage. Focusing on Yazd, Iran, and specifically on windcatchers - a key cultural attribute recognized for its "outstanding universal value" by UNESCO - this study integrates AI to enhance both urban and socio-cultural planning. This article, as the concluding piece of a broader research project, synthesizes the project's findings to highlight AI's potential for inclusive heritage planning, referencing related publications of the same project to provide context while remaining concise. The research is structured in three phases: first, a literature review on AI applications in participatory heritage planning and value-based heritage planning; second, the methodology for data collection and analysis, including coding and comparing values and attributes of windcatchers conveyed by different stakeholders; and third, findings on the values and attributes, and their interrelationships as revealed through the data. The results confirm that while there are both conflicts and alignments in the cultural significance attributed to windcatchers in Yazd among various stakeholders, the theoretical framework presented here offers a valuable tool for heritage planning. By decoding and measuring cultural significance from diverse perspectives, this framework aids in identifying conflicts and alignments and in better aligning stakeholder perspectives. This model can be adapted to other key attributes in Yazd and other case studies, offering broader applications in heritage planning. Additionally, the findings underscore the potential of AI to evaluate the legislative framework's effectiveness in enhancing public engagement
Ripple Effects Mapping Within a Process Evaluation of Sport for Development Provision in England
Get PDFEvaluating the impact of sport for development is fraught with practical and methodological challenges. The evaluator is often presented with complex and messy social realities compounded by ill‐defined interventions with hard‐to‐follow outcomes. Further, those subject to an impact evaluation can feel under the spotlight with little contribution to the research programme, which complicates the potentially informative learning and developmental processes of the evaluation. This article provides an introduction to ripple effects mapping (REM) as an evaluation technique and draws on the case study of a community‐based, physical‐activity intervention within the UK. This article will demonstrate the utility of REM as a co‐productive technique for exploring programme outcomes but also as a tool to capture and understand the impact of the programme on participants. Through the presentation and analysis of the example REM, produced collaboratively with programme participants and stakeholders, the discussion illustrates the suitability and potential of REM as a process evaluation tool. The article presents REM in the context of evaluating sport for development practices and provides a critique and reflection about the refinement of REM as a robust evaluation tool
Politische Bildung und sozial-ökologische Transformation: Impulse aus Bildungspraxen der Klimagerechtigkeitsbewegung
Get PDFWie lässt sich transformative Bildung als politische Bildung im Kontext sozial-ökologischer Transformation aus Perspektive kritischer Gesellschaftsforschung denken? Diese qualitative Studie beleuchtet Bildungspraxen der Klimagerechtigkeitsbewegung
Was war KI? Rezension zu "Soziologie der Künstlichen Intelligenz: Perspektiven der Relationalen Soziologie und Netzwerkforschung" von Roger Häußling, Claudius Härpfer und Marco Schmitt (Hg.)
Get PDFRoger Häußling, Claudius Härpfer, Marco Schmitt (Hrsg.): Soziologie der Künstlichen Intelligenz: Perspektiven der Relationalen Soziologie und Netzwerkforschung. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag 2024. Digitale Soziologie, Bd. 5. 978-3-8376-7411-
Die Öffentliche Unterstützung für Entwicklungszusammenarbeit sinkt - Fünf Erklärungsansätze
Get PDFSeit der Diskussion um den Bundeshaushalt im Herbst 2023 steht die deutsche Entwicklungspolitik verstärkt in der öffentlichen Kritik. Diese Kritik fällt in eine Zeit, die durch eine Reihe aufeinanderfolgender und miteinander verwobener Krisen geprägt ist: die Covid-19-Pandemie, die erneute Machtübernahme der Taliban in Afghanistan 2021, der 2022 begonnene russische Angriffskrieg gegen die Ukraine und der seit 2023 wieder aufflammende Nahostkonflikt. Vor diesem Hintergrund widmet sich dieser Policy Brief den folgenden Fragen: 1. Wie hat sich die Zustimmung der Bevölkerung zur Entwicklungspolitik in den vergangenen Jahren verändert? 2. Wie lassen sich die Entwicklungen erklären, und welche Implikationen ergeben sich daraus für die EZ
Propagation of Hate Speech on Social Network X: Trends and Approaches
Get PDFDigital technologies have democratized the transmission of information, enabling individuals to interact and share information instantly through social networks. However, these advancements have also brought about negative aspects such as the propagation of hate speech on social media. This research aims to address the following question: What are the predominant theoretical and methodological approaches in academic research on hate speech on X (formerly known as Twitter)? This study aims to identify and analyze the trends in existing academic research on the proliferation and dissemination of hate speech on the social network X, to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge in this field, and to highlight areas for future research. To conduct this analysis, a mixed‐methods methodology is employed and a systematic literature review is applied as the research technique. Quantitative analysis involves descriptive statistical analysis, while qualitative analysis is conducted using a deductive strategy to study the predetermined categories of research included in this study. Among the main contributions is the integration of findings from multiple studies, facilitating the understanding of this phenomenon, as well as enabling the identification of best practices and existing knowledge gaps in this field
Comparative Population Studies at Fifty: Views on the Past, Present, and Future
Get PDFThe 50th volume of Comparative Population Studies (CPoS) is a significant milestone in the journal's history, offering us the opportunity to reflect on its development into a key platform for population research, major achievements, and future aspirations. Besides a retrospective, we present a forward-looking perspective, outlining our vision for the journal’s trajectory in an ever-changing scientific landscape. Furthermore, we offer insights from 50 years of CPoS, including the total number of submissions, the geographic origins of our authors, and an analysis of the journal's most downloaded articles. This editorial is the first in a series accompanying CPoS volume 50 in our anniversary year. Further editorials by former CPoS editors, publishers, and authors will follow, giving an overview of the editorial processes, guiding principles, and strategic considerations that have and will continue to shape the journal's identity and impact
Consumer Behaviour in the Gig Economy: Implications for Traditional Labour Market
Get PDFThe gig economy is fast evolving, typified or characterised by short-term, flexible and task-based digital platforms. This paper investigates how consumer behaviour in the gig economy affects traditional labour markets, focusing on structural shifts in employment and changes in labour market dynamics. It gives an overview of the gig economy, which has experienced rapid growth in transitioning towards flexible, short-term employment arrangements through platforms enabled by digital technologies. The study also highlights the different types of gig platforms, such as ridesharing, freelance marketplaces, and on-demand services, by elaborating on their specific feature and business models. The study reinforces that consumer buying behaviour in the gig economy predicts convenience, cost-effectiveness, and speed of service delivery. The study also indicates that the gig economy has significant implications on the labour market dynamics since new forms of employment challenge regular job security, benefits, and worker rights. These findings support that while the gig economy provides greater flexibility to workers, it also creates more significant issues related to income instability and removing traditional labour protection. The challenges associated with the gig economy are also investigated, including regulatory obstacles, poor or insufficient worker protection, and the long-term viability of gig platforms in light of rising competition. The study concludes that although the gig economy provides new opportunities for consumers and workers, it also involves many challenges that must be thoroughly deliberated and mitigated by policymakers and industry representatives
Beyond Play: Researching the Transformative Power of Digital Gaming in Deeply Mediatized Societies
Get PDFDigital gaming has evolved from a peripheral activity to a central aspect of mediatized lifeworlds, significantly impacting media culture and society. Despite its pervasive influence, digital gaming research often occupies a marginalized status within broader academic disciplines. This article advocates for recognizing digital gaming as an integral part of the media landscape and understanding its role within a deeply mediatized society. By adopting a holistic perspective, this study emphasizes the interconnectedness of digital gaming with other media forms and cultural practices, highlighting its significance in driving digital transformation. Therefore, we argue for a dual development: one that removes gaming from its segregated special status and recognizes it as an integral part of the media landscape, and another that situates the unique aspects of gaming within the broader context of a society deeply transformed and shaped by media; capturing both its significance and its role as part of the whole. We elaborate on the concept of gamevironments bridging deep mediatization research and communicative figurations to comprehend change brought about by the transformative power of digital gaming in deeply mediatized societies. Gamevironments encompass transmedia figurations and narratives, cross-media adaptations, social interactions, user-generated content, and the cultural and educational impacts of gaming. We discuss the analytical potential of gamevironments along five distinct yet interrelated areas (making of gamevironments, values in and of gamevironments, governance of gamevironments, education in and for gamevironments, and researching gamevironments) to provide a comprehensive view of digital gaming's transformative impact on digital society
Monetary‐Fiscal Interactions and the Problem of Outdated Commitments: Eurozone Crisis Versus Covid‐19
Get PDFPost-crisis accounts of economic governance in Europe have often analysed the monetary policy decisions of the supranational European Central Bank and the fiscal policy coordination of the intergovernmental Council and Eurogroup separately. This is unfortunate since both policy fields are closely linked and increasingly interdependent. We put forward a theory of monetary-fiscal interactions in the Economic and Monetary Union based on the notion of de-commitment and re-commitment. In juxtaposition to the grand theories of neo-functionalism and liberal intergovernmentalism, we argue that EU institutions serve not only to tie the member states to policy commitments but also to untie them from previous policy commitments that have become outdated and harmful. The European Central Bank's main contribution to safeguarding the Eurozone in 2012 and 2020 has not been to enforce but to relax the monetary financing prohibition of the Treaty, and the Council's main contribution in 2020 was not to double down on the no bail-out clause but to re-commit to risk-sharing and burden-sharing through the NextGenerationEU programme. We argue and show that economic governance in Europe has progressed through three stages of commitment. Whereas monetary-fiscal interactions followed a commitment logic during the first decade of the Economic and Monetary Union (the "old normal"), the defining feature of the second decade has been de-commitment (the "new normal"). In the Covid-19 crisis, economic governance finally entered a phase of re-commitment (taking the Economic and Monetary Union "back to the future"). The analysis has implications for our understanding of the purpose and power of supranational institutions in overcoming the problem of outdated commitments post-crisis