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Citizen Engagement and Participation in urban- and rural-digital Spaces – A social-geographical case study on the involvement of relevant interest groups including practical recommendations for participation in municipal projects
No full textSozialer Teilhabe und Partizipation wird viel Bedeutung und großes Potential zugeschrieben, zum Beispiel seitens der Europäischen Kommission und nationaler Behörden etwa in Förderprogrammen, seitens den Vereinten Nationen etwa in den Zielen für nachhaltige Entwicklung der Agenda 2030 oder seitens des Deutschen Bundesministeriums für Bildung und Forschung etwa in der Hightech-Strategie 2025. Gleichzeitig bestehen beim Thema Partizipation aber Forschungslücken, insbesondere mit Blick auf digitale Formen der Partizipation. Letztere stehen erst am Beginn ihres Einsatzes, während die digitalen Medien sowohl die Alltagswelt der Menschen als auch die Planungsverfahren immer stärker berühren.
Diese Arbeit befasst sich deshalb mit Partizipationsprozessen zur Beteiligung von Bürgerinnen, Bürgern und anderen Akteuren/Interessensgruppen in kommunalen Projekten und damit, wie diese Partizipationsprozesse im Lichte von aktuellen, modernen Möglichkeiten digitaler Partizipation anwendungsorientiert gestaltet und sowohl in städtischen als auch ländlichen Räumen akteurs- und ergebnisorientiert analog und/oder digital umgesetzt werden können.
Das methodische Vorgehen basiert auf einem vor allem qualitativ- und interaktiv-sozialwissenschaftlichen Methodenmix und erfolgt in drei Zyklen: (1) einer initialen Datensammlung mit Fokus auf einem kommunalen Partizipationsprojekt, (2) einer Datensammlung 2 mit einem Fokus auf minimalen Kontrast und Ähnlichkeiten weiterhin im Rahmen des Partizipationsprojekts sowie (3) einer Datensammlung 3 mit einem Fokus auf stärkeren Kontrast und Unterschiede hinsichtlich Aktivität, Alter oder Kultur der Akteure bzw. hinsichtlich des (eher) ländlichen bzw. städtischen Kontextes. Die verwendeten Erhebungsinstrumente (vor allem narrative und problemzentrierte Interviews, Befragungen, teilnehmende Beobachtungen, ein Schulprojekt und die Erhebung digitaler Partizipations- und Forschungsdaten) zeigen die Bedeutung der drei Aspekte Milieu, Akteure und Programm in der Planung, Gestaltung und Durchführung von Partizipationsprozessen. Anhand dieser drei Gesichtspunkte ergibt sich zudem die Antwort auf die zentrale Forschungsfrage dieser Arbeit, wie Partizipationsprozesse in kommunalen Projekten gestaltet werden können, um digitale Formate sowie lokal-regionale Kontexte zu berücksichtigen, und welche Aspekte dabei relevant sind:
(1) das analoge Milieu der konkreten (eher) ländlichen bzw. städtischen Kommune sowie das in diesem sozialen und emotionalen Betroffenheits-Raum vorhandene oder von den Verantwortlichen anreichernd eingesetzte digitale Partizipations-Milieu bilden insgesamt den Raum und beeinflussen die Atmosphäre des Raums, innerhalb dem sich der Partizipationsprozess und die einzelnen -formate je nach Projektphase an ggf. unterschiedlichen Veranstaltungsorten als mikrogeographische Milieus in unterschiedlicher Art und Weise realisieren;
(2) die sich in verschiedener Weise in den Partizipationsprozess einbringenden Akteure/Interessensgruppen und deren (je nach Ausmaß der tatsächlichen oder emotionalen Betroffenheit ausgeprägte) individuelle Motivation, beeinflussen die Erfordernisse an eine analoge und/oder digitale informative, dialogische und/oder diskursive Kommunikation sowie an eine auf Bildung, Begegnung, Kooperation und Verantwortung bauende analoge und/oder digitale Interaktion im konkreten Partizipationsprozess;
(3) mit dem konkreten Programm des Partizipationsprozesses und den einzelnen analogen und/oder digitalen -formaten gestaltet sich ein (Partizipations-)Projekt in unterschiedlicher Ausprägung milieuorientiert (mit der Definition und Analyse des Partizipations-Raums als Kern der Milieuorientierung und der Standortsuche als zusätzlicher Aspekt bei standortbezogenen Projekten), akteursorientiert (auf den Umfang und den Grad der Einflussnahme-Möglichkeit der Akteure/Interessensgruppen von Nicht-Partizipation über Information und Mitsprache bis hin zu Zusammenarbeit und Mitbestimmung sowie Selbstbestimmung der Akteure blickend) sowie ergebnisorientiert (wirtschaftlich hinsichtlich Planung, Umsetzung, Entscheidung, Nachhaltung und Nachhaltigkeit).
Die Bedeutung dieser Arbeit besteht zum einen darin, dass sie das theoretische und praktische Verständnis von Partizipationsprozessen erweitert, indem sie die Fokussierung auf gesellschaftliche Interaktionen in städtisch- und ländlich-digitalen Kontexten einführt, den es so bisher nicht gab, und damit auch die Action-Setting-Theorie von Peter Weichhart um digitale und regionale Anwendungsfelder erweitert. Die anwendungsorientierten Handlungsempfehlungen tragen zudem zur milieu-, akteurs- und programmsensiblen Umsetzung moderner Möglichkeiten analoger und/oder digitaler Partizipation bei. Schließlich eröffnet diese Arbeit Anknüpfungspunkte für künftige Forschungen – etwa in der Motivationspsychologie, der Kommunikations- und Politikwissenschaft, der Volkswirtschafts- oder der Betriebswirtschaftslehre sowie mit Blick auf andere räumliche Maßstäbe bis hin zu landes-, bundes- und europa-politischen (Partizipations-)Projekten.Great importance and great potential are ascribed to social inclusion and participation, for example by the European Commission and national authorities in funding programs, by the United Nations, in the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda, or by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research in the High-Tech Strategy 2025. At the same time, however, there are research gaps on the subject of participation, particularly with regard to digital forms of participation. The latter are only just beginning to be used, while digital media are increasingly affecting both people's everyday lives and planning processes.
This work therefore deals with processes for the participation of citizens and other actors/interest groups in municipal projects and how these participation processes can be designed in the light of current, modern possibilities of digital participation analogously and/or digitally and in an application-, actor- and result-oriented manner in both urban and rural areas.
The methodological approach is based on a primarily qualitative and interactive social science method mix and takes place in three cycles: (1) an initial data collection with a focus on a municipal participation project, (2) a data collection 2 with a focus on minimal contrast and similarities, which continues in the participation project and (3) a data collection 3 with a focus on stronger contrast and differences in terms of activity, age or culture of the actors or in terms of the (rather) rural or urban context. The survey instruments used (mainly narrative and problem-centered interviews, surveys, participatory observations, a school project and the collection of digital participation- and research data) show the importance of the three aspects milieu, actors and program in the planning, design and implementation of participation processes. These three points of view also provide the answer to the central research question of this work, how participation processes in municipal projects can be designed to take digital formats and local-regional contexts into account, and which aspects are relevant:
(1) the analogue milieu of the concrete (rather) rural or urban municipality as well as the digital participation milieu, that is present in this social and emotional area of concern or that is used to enrich it by those responsible, form the area as a whole and influence the atmosphere of the area, within which the participation process and the individual formats are realized in different ways at possibly different venues as microgeographical milieus depending on the project phase;
(2) the actors/interest groups involved in the participation process in various ways and their individual motivation (depending on the extent of the actual or emotional impact) influence the requirements for analogue and/or digital informative, dialogical and/or discursive communication as well to an analogue and/or digital interaction based on education, encounter, cooperation and responsibility in the concrete process of participation;
(3) with the specific program of the participation process and the individual analogue and/or digital formats, a (participation) project is formed milieu-oriented (with the definition and analysis of the participation space as the core of the milieu orientation and the search for a location as an additional aspect in site-related projects), actor-oriented (looking at the scope and degree of the actors/interest groups' ability to exert influence, from non-participation to information and participation to cooperation and co-determination as well as self-determination of the actors) and result-oriented (economically in terms of planning, implementation , decision, follow-up and sustainability) in various forms.
The importance of this work is, on the one hand, that it expands the theoretical and practical understanding of participatory processes by introducing a focus on social interactions in urban- and rural-digital contexts that did not exist before. This also expands the Action-Setting-Theory by Peter Weichhart by including digital and regional fields of application. The application-oriented recommendations for action also contribute to the milieu-, actor- and program-sensitive implementation of modern opportunities for analogue and/or digital participation. Finally, this work opens up starting points for future research – for example in motivational psychology, communication and political science, economics or business administration, as well as with a view to other spatial scales, including state, federal and European political (participation) projects
Socio-economic development and migration in rural Ghana : report from field research in Amedzofe, Volta Region
No full textMigration plays a significant role in Ghanaian society, particularly in rural areas where its impact is inextricably linked to socio-economic dynamics. In March 2023, a student field research field research project was conducted in Amedzofe as part of the international research project “Migration and Translocality in West Africa”, shedding light on various aspects of rural life through the lens of translocality. The field research aimed to address a wide range of topics related to rural livelihoods, focusing on migration and translocal aspects of everyday life. Six working groups embarked on a 10-day field research journey, employing mixed methods encompassing both quantitative and qualitative approaches. This extensive fieldwork followed a semester of intensive preparation, ensuring the thoroughness and depth of the study.
The survey results were meticulously analysed and presented, providing valuable insights into the patterns, drivers and impacts of migration in the region. Additionally, the findings of the six working groups offered nuanced perspectives on various facets of rural life, including economic activities, social networks, cultural practices, education and gender aspects.
This endeavour aims at fostering a deeper understanding of the complexities surrounding migration and translocality in rural Ghana. It is a testament to the dedication and vision of the late Prof. Dr. Malte Steinbrink, whose leadership and guidance were instrumental in the preparation and realisation of this study
Probabilistic and geometric aspects of classical and non-commutative lp-type spaces in high dimensions
No full textThis cumulative dissertation contains selected contributions to the field of asymptotic geometric analysis and high-dimensional probability. It is divided into two chapters: Chapter 1 explains some of the necessary theoretical background. In Section 1.1 it first gives a very concise history of asymptotic geometric analysis in general and then of the objects under study in particular, setting out some cornerstones in the discovery of the functional-analytic, geometric, and probabilistic properties of the spaces under consideration.
The next section (1.2) gives the precise definitions and very basic properties of the three lp-type spaces that play a role in the contributed articles: the classical lp-sequence spaces, the mixed-norm sequence spaces, and the Schatten-classes Sp, each in its infinite- and finite-dimensional version.
Section 1.3 is dedicated to the interplay between geometry and probability, expounding the general idea, introducing a few of the common tools, and exemplifying these on two kinds of limit theorems: Schechtman-Schmuckenschläger-type results and Poincaré-Maxwell-Borel lemmas.
The first chapter concludes with Section 1.4, addressing a small sample of open questions pertaining to the contributed articles which are not answered in said articles and may be the interest of future research.
The entirety of Chapter 2 consists of the contributed articles.Diese kumulative Dissertation enthält ausgewählte Beiträge zum Gebiet der asymptotischen geometrischen Analyse und der hochdimensionalen Wahrscheinlichkeit. Sie ist in zwei Kapitel geteilt:
Kapitel 1 erklärt ein wenig des notwendigen theoretischen Hintergrunds. Abschnitt 1.1 bringt eine sehr kurz gefasste Geschichte der asymptotischen geometrischen Analyse im Allgemeinen und der Studienobjekte im Speziellen und legt einige Eckpunkte der Entdeckung der funktionalanalytischen, geometrischen und probabilistischen Eigenschaften der betrachteten Räume dar.
Der nächste Abschnitt (1.2) gibt die genauen Definitionen und sehr grundlegenden Eigenschaften jener drei lp-artigen Räume, die in den beigetragenen Artikeln eine Rolle spielen: die klassischen lp-Folgenräume, die Folgenräume mit gemischter Norm und die Schattenklassen Sp, jeweils in der unendlich- und der endlichdimensionalen Version.
Abschnitt 1.3 ist dem Zusammenspiel von Geometrie und Wahrscheinlichkeit gewidmet, er erörtert die allgemeine Idee, stellt einige der gebräuchlichen Werkzeuge vor und gibt zwei Beispiele von Grenzwertsätzen dazu: Schechtman-Schmuckenschläger-artige Ergebnisse und Poincaré-Maxwell-Borel-Lemmas.
Das erste Kapitel schließt mit Abschnitt 1.4, der einen kleinen Satz von offenen Fragen anspricht, die zu den beigetragenen Artikeln gehören, darin aber nicht beantwortet werden und die das Interesse künftiger Forschung sein mögen.
Kapitel 2 besteht zur Gänze aus den beigetragenen Artikeln
VMIaaS: Virtual Machine Introspection as a Service
No full textIn this digital era, communication in the digital world is becoming part of our daily lives. One key technology that becomes part of this digital transformation is cloud computing. It allows users to have a running system as a virtual machine (VM) on the cloud without owning a physical server. Unfortunately, adversaries can also use those systems to conduct criminal activities. Therefore, developing a method to extract evidence from those systems is also necessary. One way is through digital forensics, and one method to do digital forensics of a VM is using virtual machine introspection (VMI). However, VMI has yet to be made available by any public cloud provider. This thesis addresses this issue by introducing methods for deploying VMI on public cloud providers.
Four main challenges have to be solved. Firstly, VMI requires access to the hypervisor, which practically can access all VMs running on the same server. This leads to security and privacy issues where customers can introspect each other VMs. To solve this problem, this thesis introduces KVMIveggur, a versatile access control of VMI. It comes with different options that every customer can choose from based on their needs.
Secondly, VMI introduces overhead to the running VM. This is because most of the introspection mechanisms perform data access to the monitored VM. Performing data access on a running VM can cause data inconsistency. Hence, pausing the VM before executing the data access is better. However, when the VM pausing frequency is high, it will affect the performance of the monitored VM. The current state-of-the-art techniques use caching to reduce the VM pausing frequency. However, it faces a problem: the cached data may be outdated compared to the actual data. Therefore, this thesis introduces VMIFresh, a better caching mechanism. We leverage both active and passive tracing mechanisms to ensure high performance and consistency of the data (freshness).
Thirdly, many state-of-the-art VMI libraries and applications run perfectly only on Intel processors because Intel CPUs provide the best hardware support for VMI. However, AMD and ARM processors are getting more popular in cloud computing. Thus, it is necessary to retrofit VMI capabilities to support AMD and ARM processors. This thesis describes the requirements to employ VMI on AMD and ARM processors. We also provide the implementation of those requirements.
Finally, to do introspection using VMI, it is crucial to have proper symbol information (layout and location of data structures) of the introspected operating system (OS) and user applications. While many existing VMI approaches concentrate primarily on analyzing OS data structures, analyzing user application data often receives no attention. In our approach, we address this gap by focussing on application-level introspection. We have identified several use cases that require this kind of introspection. We focus on cryptographic key extraction for two specific instances: secure shell (SSH) and transport layer security (TLS) by leveraging the power of machine learning techniques to locate those keys in the main memory effectively and efficiently.
After we had solved those challenges, we combined a couple of our approaches and introduced two VMI applications: Sarracenia and VMIGuard. Sarracenia is a deception technology that tracks activities done on an SSH session. The main goal of Sarracenia is to attract adversaries away from the production system and learn about their behavior. On the other hand, VMIGuard also monitors the SSH traffic. But, it specifically monitors the activity of any git-related activities. The main goal of VMIGuard is to ensure the integrity of the hosted data from any internal malicious actor
Diversity in Programming Education: Effects of Topic and Group Constellation on Young Programming Novices
No full textThe field of software engineering faces a significant diversity crisis, characterized by a critical lack of heterogeneity despite ongoing efforts to promote gender equality. The persistent male dominance in this domain has created an urgent need for more heterogeneous groups in software engineering. This lack of diversity not only hinders underrepresented groups from entering the field but also prevents them from gaining initial programming experiences, which are a core component of software engineering and essential for developing computational thinking.
To address this crisis and its implications, early interventions are key in shaping positive perceptions, building confidence, and sparking initial interest in programming among underrepresented groups before societal stereotypes of programming as a nerdy field manifests. This means starting with basic programming courses for children and continuing through to first-year university students in order to foster technical skills and computational thinking, alongside creativity and collaboration.
However, there is limited understanding of how introductory programming course designs impact diversity-dependent characteristics to create welcoming and learning-friendly environments. This understanding is particularly important for underrepresented groups, especially girls, to benefit from their first programming experiences as they are often hindered by the initial perception of programming as (1) abstract and unappealing, and (2) non-social to novices. Engaging, creative, and relatable topics in programming courses might demystify complex programming concepts, making them more accessible, less intimidating, and appealing. However, understanding programming is not just about the content---it is also about the context in which it is learned. Introducing programming as social activity is important, particularly for young learners. By emphasizing team work, we might encourage collaboration and peer support, counteracting the lone-wolf programmer stereotype.
Therefore, this doctoral thesis investigates the effects of both key aspects in programming courses---(1) topic choices and (2) group constellations---on young programming novices. The aim is to provide a holistic understanding of how different course designs can support diverse learners and promote gender equality in programming education.
While this research primarily addresses gender diversity due to the persistent gender gap in software engineering, it also examines additional diversity dimensions, including age, ethnicity, prior programming experience, disabilities, and educational background. A total of 13 studies were conducted within this thesis, examining the current state of educational settings and utilizing various introductory programming courses designed for children aged 8 to 18, as well as first-year university students. These studies employed different programming environments, such as Scratch and Sonic Pi, and incorporated a variety of topics and group constellations to observe their effects on student outcomes. By using a mixed-methods design, data were gathered through surveys, observations, and both data-driven and manual code analysis.
Key findings reveal that it is particularly noteworthy how children utilize the programming environment to engage with and creatively express topics aligned with their interests which also align mostly with gender-stereotypes, including elements from internet and popular culture as well as socio-cultural narratives. However, gender-sensitive and neutral topic choices enhance engagement, self-efficacy, contribution, code quality and creative output, while also contributing to reduce stereotypical beliefs about programming, particularly among girls.
In line with the findings for the course topic, group constellations also influence programming experiences. In particular, introducing pair programming in courses shows a promising approach for young learners, but attention must be paid to mitigate socially learned gender-stereotypical behaviours. Another finding indicates that, unlike professional software teams, mixed-diverse student teams often encounter substantial challenges, thus benefit from clear communication guidelines and supportive environments to promote better collaboration.
This doctoral thesis concludes with guidelines for designing more effective and inclusive introductory programming courses. These recommendations include using gender-sensitive course materials, allowing for creative freedom through topic choices while encouraging the use of advanced programming concepts, promoting collaboration through pair programming while fostering enhanced communication, boosting self-efficacy with quick positive feedback for girls in particular, and providing emotional support for underrepresented groups.
By following these guidelines, educators can create more engaging, inclusive, and effective programming courses.
This may ultimately promote a more equitable and diverse future generation of professional software developers while also fostering computational thinking, encouraging a broader interest in programming among all young learners
Anonymous voting using distributed ledger-assisted secure multi-party computation
No full textHigh voter turnout in elections and referendums is desirable to ensure a robust democracy. Secure electronic voting is a vision for the future of elections and referendums. Such a system can counteract factors hindering strong voter turnout such as the requirement of physical presence during limited hours at polling stations. However, this vision brings transparency and confidentiality requirements that render the design of such solutions challenging. Specifically, the counting implementation must support reproducibility, and the choice of individual voters must remain confidential. In this paper, we propose and evaluate a novel referendum protocol that ensures transparency, confidentiality, and integrity, in trustless networks. The protocol is built by combining secure multi-party computation and distributed ledger technology, e.g., a Blockchain. The persistence and immutability of the protocol communication allow verifiability of the referendum outcome by any participant. Voters therefore do not need to trust third parties. We provide a formal description and conduct a thorough security evaluation of our proposal
Partial Representation Extension and Simultaneous Representation of Intersection Graphs
No full textMany real world problems can be modeled with geometric intersection graphs. A (geometric) intersection representation of a graph G=(V,E) is a family {R_v}_{v\in V} of geometric objects such that two geometric objects R_u, R_v intersect if and only if the corresponding vertices u, v are adjacent in G. The most prominent class of intersection graphs are interval graphs, which have representations consisting only of intervals on the real line. Interval graphs have applications in genetics, scheduling, archaeology and many more fields. The recognition problem asks the question whether a given graph belongs to a certain graph class.
Two natural generalizations of the recognition problem are the partial representation extension problem and the simultaneous representation problem. In the partial representation extension problem one is given a graph G and a partial representation, i.e., a representation of a subgraph of G. The question then is whether the partial representation can be extended to the whole graph G without changing the given partial representation. In the simultaneous representation problem one is given multiple graphs G_1,...,G_k that can have shared parts, and the question is whether there are representations of all input graphs such that shared vertices are represented by the same geometric objects. Often the sunflower case is considered, where the shared part of any two input graphs is the same.
We determine the complexity of the partial representation extension problem and the simultaneous representation problem, especially in the sunflower case for various intersection graph classes. We also improve the running time
for various intersection graph classes. In particular, we show that the partial representation extension problem for circular-arc graphs is NP-complete and that the simultaneous representation problem for interval graphs can be solved in linear time in the sunflower case, answering open questions from 2014 and 2010
A Sociotechnical Perspective on Digital Transformation of Work in Organizations, on Platforms, and in Academia
No full textThe findings of this dissertation reveal that digital transformation in the workplace accelerates ongoing changes in work practices, leading to transformations in organizations on both social and technological levels (study one). A key challenge identified in our case from study one is that highly virtual and digital work environments can undermine the integration of new employees and weaken organizational cohesion, resulting in more isolated work that tends to occur either individually or in small groups. In completely detached work settings (study two), our findings emphasize the prevalence of negative work experiences - frustration in our case – and the central role of both social and technical antecedents. Work settings devoid of any organizational framework, such as microtask crowd work, show an even greater detachment from shared values and structures compared to study one, posing significant challenges for the workers involved. These challenging conditions for individuals and organizations highlight the necessity for further research and the development of innovative theories to better comprehend these dynamics, and to devise strategies to manage these challenges effectively. Studies three and four build on this premise. In these studies, within the context of the digital transformation of academic work, we demonstrated how ML combined with XAI applications can be employed in theory development
Robust combinatorial optimization problems under budgeted interdiction uncertainty
No full textIn robust combinatorial optimization, we would like to find a solution that performs well under all realizations of an uncertainty set of possible parameter values. How we model this uncertainty set has a decisive influence on the complexity of the corresponding robust problem. For this reason, budgeted uncertainty sets are often studied, as they enable us to decompose the robust problem into easier subproblems. We propose a variant of discrete budgeted uncertainty for cardinality-based constraints or objectives, where a weight vector is applied to the budget constraint. We show that while the adversarial problem can be solved in linear time, the robust problem becomes NP-hard and not approximable. We discuss different possibilities to model the robust problem and show experimentally that despite the hardness result, some models scale relatively well in the problem size
Comprehending and sensing racism : how Germans of migrant background make sense of experiences of ethnoracial exclusion
No full textOver the past decade, there has been a strong focus on studying individuals’ responses to stigmatisation, discrimination and racism, while the question of how individuals recognise and make sense of an exclusionary event, has been largely side-lined. To fill
in this gap, this study leverages an affect-theoretically informed reformulation of Essed’s (1991, Understanding Everyday Racism: An Interdisciplinary Theory. London: Sage) classic concept of ‘comprehension of racism’ to investigate how individuals understand and make sense of experiences of ethnoracial exclusion. Empirically, the article analyses 419 experiences/incidents of ethnoracial exclusion reported in 66 semi-structured interviews with highly educated, second and 1.75 generation immigrants representing three ‘groups’ of Germans who (may) experience exclusion due to their migrant background: Germans of Polish migrant background, Black Germans and Germans of Turkish migrant background. The study identifies three modes by which interviewees talked about exclusionary experiences/incidents: (1) by normalisation (interpreting an experience/incident as ‘normal’), (2) by categorisation (identifying an experience/incident as, e.g. ‘racist’, ‘discriminatory’, or ‘disadvantaging’) or (3) by indicating feelings of unease. For each of the three modes, the article outlines the role of affects and emotions in interviewees’ narratives, provides insight into the types of experiences/incidents for which the modes were used and highlights differences between the three groups of respondents