27 research outputs found
Towards ‘ethno-national peripheralisation’? Economic dependency amidst political resistance in Palestinian East Jerusalem
No full text Recent studies discuss ‘peripheralisation’ as an uneven socio-spatial phenomenon driven by processes of economic centralisation and marginalisation (Kühn and Bernt, 2013) in capitalist (or capitalising) societies (Bernt and Colini, 2013). In this article, I utilise the concept of peripheralisation in the context of an ethno-national dispute in which spatial, economic and regional dynamics are largely determined by territorial policies of control and exclusion. I combine extant literature on the geopolitics and economy of Jerusalem with the Centre–Periphery framework in order to analyse the development and decline of East Jerusalem’s socio-economic status and political environment from 1967 to 2016. As I will show, since the beginning of the 1990s, Israeli national security policies have transformed East Jerusalem from a Palestinian metropolitan centre into a region on the socio-economic periphery of Israel. I term this particular type of marginalisation ‘ethno-national peripheralisation’, a process of socio-economic decline that is not a relational product of neoliberal centralisation, but an output of ethno-national policies of division and annexation. The radical shift in East Jerusalem’s regional socio-economic status, from a centre of one national realm to the periphery of another, transforms urban life and political spatial strategies in contemporary Jerusalem. The case of East Jerusalem’s peripheralisation demonstrates the ways in which ethno-national policies can create counter outcomes of ethno-national desegregation accelerated by physical entrapment, economic dependency and urban neoliberalism. </jats:p
Towards Urban Geopolitics of Encounter: Spatial Mixing in Contested Jerusalem
Get PDFThe extent to which 'geographies of encounter' facilitate tolerance of diversity and difference has long been a source of debate in urban studies and human geography scholarship. However, to date this contestation has focused primarily on hyper-diverse cities in the global north-west. Adapting this debate to the volatile conditions of the nationally-contested city, this paper explores intergroup encounters between Israelis and Palestinians in Jerusalem. The paper suggests that in the context of hyper-polarisation of the nationally-contested urban space, the study of encounter should focus on macro-scale structural forces. In Jerusalem, we stress the role of ethnonationality and neoliberalism as key producers of its asymmetric and volatile yet highly resilient geography of intergroup encounters. In broader sense, as many cities worldwide experience a resurgence of ethnonationalism, illuminating the structural production of encounter may demarcate a broader function for reading contemporary urban geopolitics
Advisory System for MDO Architecture Selection in the MDO System Formulation Stage
No full textOne of the challenges in executing an MDO system is the selection of the best performing MDO architecture in terms of computational effort for a given MDO problem. To address this, several comparative studies have been created, which analyze the relative performance of MDO architectures with respect to internal features of MDO problems, such as the number of design variables and nature of interdisciplinary coupling. However, the existing research is limited in applicability. An inclusive prediction model, that can recommend the best MDO architecture for any MDO problem is not found yet in literature. In this thesis, the intention is to conduct a thorough comparison of two commonly used MDO architectures with respect to a database of sequentially generated MDO problems, having a range of internal features. Following this, a prediction model of MDO architecture is to be developed by applying a suitable machine learning algorithm on the generated database.Aerospace Engineerin
Governing cross-border electricity provision and infrastructure in a divided Cyprus since 1963
No full textThis article studies the electricity grid as a manifestation and medium of energy dependency relations. It analyses the experience of managing the electricity grid on the politically divided island of Cyprus over the past six decades to reappraise notions of the grid as a sociotechnical connector. The insularity of the Cypriot grid has made collaboration across the political divide between the Greek Cypriot South and Turkish Cypriot North over the provision of electricity unavoidable despite intercommunal separation. The article uses recent research on cross-border interconnectors and wider scholarship on the technopolitics, history and geopolitics of energy to unpack the dynamics and ambivalence of the grid in politically contested contexts. Four key findings emerge from the analysis. First, the grid may be viewed in the public realm as a great connector, but understanding what it connects, in what ways and to what ends is essential to its effective mobilization. Second, electricity grids can not only expand, but also contract, lose their function and be later re-activated, highlighting the non-linearity of grid histories. Third, because of its strategic importance to energy services the electricity grid is ingrained with political meaning and impact, mobilized in the Cypriot case to assert sovereignty claims, strive for electricity self-dependence, but also to build bridges. Fourth, the energy engineer emerges from this story as a figure willing and able to transcend political divides through the grid. Overall, the article shows how historical examples of political contestation over electricity infrastructure can prove highly instructive for current debates about transforming energy systems
Modelling competing theories
Get PDFWe introduce a complete many-valued semantics for two normal lattice-based modal logics. This semantics is based on reflexive many-valued graphs. We discuss an interpretation and possible applications of this logical framework in the context of the formal analysis of the interaction between (competing) scientific theories.Ethics & Philosophy of Technolog
Energy infrastructures in divided cities
No full textWithin the rich literature on politically divided cities, infrastructure has rarely featured as a medium of urban contestation. Only transportation infrastructure has merited attention of late. This paper presents an in-depth investigation of energy infrastructures as instruments of separation, control and collaboration in three iconic divided cities: Berlin, Jerusalem and Nicosia. The purpose of the paper is threefold: 1) to identify the multiple ways in which geopolitical division and unification have manifested themselves in the cities’ electricity (and gas) supply systems; 2) to analyse the strategic responses of service providers, politicians and users to their divided and united energy systems over time and 3) to use the cases to generate insight into energy infrastructures as conduits of separation, control and collaboration in politically contested cities. The research approach is distinctive for being socio-material (exploring the politics and agency of infrastructures), relational (appreciating the co-shaping of cities and infrastructures) and historical (covering 75 years of shifting responses to division and unification). The findings from this long-term analysis challenge simplistic distinctions between separation, control and collaboration. They point, rather, to the co-existence and even hybridisation of these three strategies at any one time and place, as well as to the limitations facing ideal types, as expressed in our terminology ‘seductive separation’, ‘constrained control’ and ‘conditional collaboration’. The paper emphasises the need to see beyond and within a city to comprehend the contested geographies around energy in divided cities. It also highlights the politicised indeterminacy of infrastructures in volatile urban environments, countering popular images of them as bulwarks of stability
