Mapas Parlantes: collective visual methods to map and re−/construct urban memories

Vienna, one of Europe’s most historically significant cities, has been a focal point for numerous diaspora communities. Among these, the Armenians stand out due to their long-standing history in the city, with records of their presence dating back to the 17th century. This paper explores the contributions and experiences of the Armenian community in Vienna, focusing on how Armenian culture has been preserved and adapted via certain social spaces (coffeehouses, libraries, monasteries, and churches) and how these spaces have acted as cultural hubs for the diaspora. By examining the historical, cultural, and social background of these spaces, this study sheds light on how the Armenian community in Vienna navigates its heritage in a modern European context.

The rapid development of media technology and media environment provides rich resources and convenient ways to shape the image of the city. Short video has become an important help to shape the image of the city and build the city brand. How to use short video to shape the image of the city is the key link of urban construction. This study focuses on six primary variables for analyzing city image short videos: unexpected events, emotional resonance, scene transition, elemental amplification, element interaction, and screen style. These variables were selected based on their demonstrated impact on short video engagement and dissemination efficiency. In order to realize comprehensive analysis of short video content, This study collected 20,668 video screenshots from the Douyin platform as data samples. Data collection spanned July 2019 to December 2019, and analysis was conducted using the Python programming language with the Pandas and Matplotlib libraries for data processing and visualization. To reveal the relationship between video content features and popularity by quantitative and visual methods, and to provide reference for optimizing urban brand promotion strategies. (1) The microcube model shows strong flexibility and applicability in short video content analysis, and can help reveal the complex relationship between short video content characteristics and communication effect. (2) Unexpected events and emotional resonance are key factors in the attractiveness and communication effect of short videos. Reasonable design of scene switching and element interaction significantly enhances the visual impact of short videos.

With the rapid development of short video platforms, content creation has become an important factor in attracting users and increasing platform activity. However, creators face multiple challenges in creativity, efficiency, and quality in video production. The introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) technology provides a new solution for short video creation, especially in the creation and optimization of visual content. This paper studies the AI-assisted visual content creation process and optimization practice for short video platforms, and explores the application of AI in video editing, image processing, personalized recommendation and other fields and its optimization effect. Through the analysis of the AI-assisted creation technology framework, this paper reveals how AI can improve creation efficiency, optimize video quality, and promote the personalized and intelligent development of short video creation. In addition, this paper also analyzes the technical challenges, ethical and legal issues faced by AI-assisted creation, as well as the collaborative relationship between creators and AI. Finally, this paper looks forward to the future development trend of AI and short video creation, and puts forward relevant practical suggestions, providing theoretical guidance and technical support for creators and platforms.

Our knowledge of how cities bring together different social classes is still limited. Much effort has been devoted to investigating residential segregation, mostly over well-defined social groups (e.g. race). Little is known of how mobility and human communications affect urban social integration. The dynamics of spatial and social-network segregation and individual variations along these two dimensions are largely untapped. In this article, we put forward a computational framework based on coupling large-scale information on human mobility, social-network connections and people's socio-economic status (SES), to provide a breakthrough in our understanding of the dynamics of spatio-temporal and social-network segregation in cities. Building on top of a social similarity measure, the framework can be used to depict segregation dynamics down to the individual level, and also provide aggregate measurements at the scale of places and cities, and their evolution over time. By applying the methodology in Singapore using large-scale mobile phone and socio-economic datasets, we find a relatively higher level of segregation among relatively wealthier classes, a finding that holds for both social and physical space. We also highlight the interplay between the effect of distance decay and homophily as forces that determine communication intensity, defining a notion of characteristic 'homophily distance' that can be used to measure social segregation across cities. The time-resolved analysis reveals the changing landscape of urban segregation and the time-varying roles of places. Segregations in physical and social space are weakly correlated at the individual level but highly correlated when grouped across at least hundreds of individuals. The methodology and analysis presented in this paper enable a deeper understanding of the dynamics of human segregation in social and physical space, which can assist social scientists, planners and city authorities in the design of more integrated cities.

Adopting a Bourdieusian perspective on the trialectic relationship between symbolic, social, and physical space, we assess how perceptions, evaluations, and expectations towards one’s surroundings interrelate and are associated with social status and physical location. We analyse survey data from two German neighbourhoods undergoing gentrification, arguing that in this process, residents of different class backgrounds and with different expectations towards their residential area live side-by-side. To reconstruct residents’ symbolic space of spatial perceptions, we apply multiple factor analysis (MFA) to several sets of variables on neighbourhood perception, and relate these to residents’ location in physical space (different neighbourhoods) and social space (socio-demographics). We find that differences between neighbourhoods in levels of social cohesion and disorder are the most important dimension in symbolic space, emphasizing the crucial role of social bonds in residents’ perception of their surroundings. Expectations towards neighbourhood change, the second dimension, are strongly influenced by socio-demographic characteristics.

Abstract. In the era of big data, and particularly location-based big data, GIScience is facing significant challenges. The traditional data representational and analytical models have been primarily limited to the view of Newtonian space and time. However, the contemporary enormous amount of location-based social media data and other forms of voluntary geographical data has greatly enhanced the potential to expand the horizon of the field of GIScience by including data that represent more aspects of human activities in the world. For instance, human interactions and information exchange are taking place not only in the physical space but other in virtual spaces, or concurrently in both types of spaces. Similarly, locations may not only exist in the physical space but also in virtual spaces. Social connections may also be traced in either physical or social spaces, or both. Is the shift of ways people interact with each other and with the real world imposing fundamental changes in physical activities in the physical space? If so, how? Ultimately, how can GIS help to organize the data in order to answer new research questions?This abstract is developed in response to the call for submissions to the research agenda session organized by the commission on geospatial analysis and modeling. Among other important and interesting research directions, I choose to discuss the following topics. I will provide my partial assessment of the current state of knowledge as well as preliminary analysis of associated research questions.Revamping the representation framework of current GISNew representational framework is needed to organize data in spatial, social, and temporal space. Wei and Yao (2018) argued that current GIS representations do not distinguish between spatial location and virtual locations in the virtual space, neither do they account for social associations among people. They proposed an ontological framework that identifies four primary categories in the location-based social media data, namely Agents, Activities, Places, and Social Connections. Such framework is an example of what need to be represented and analysed in future GIS.Representational bias of current location-based social media dataIt is widely known that the demography of social media users is not representative of the demography of the general public. However, the location-based social media data are used anyway in many studies regardless of the representative bias. Little has been done to understand the nature of the bias and how the bias impact research findings. There is a dire need for research that can shed light on a better understanding of the bias and on possible responses to the problem.Data fusionIn the era of big data, with a myriad of data sources and data types, how to integrate the heterogeneous data is a challenge task. Yao et al (2019) suggested that developing analytical data fusion approaches is an important research direction for location-based big data.Analytical models for spatio-temporal-social relationshipsTraditional GIS analysis and modelling focuses on space and spatial relationships, while sometimes the temporal dimension is also added. However, location-based big data are often acquired from individuals with fine-grained location and time information. Location-based social media data show connections among the individuals. In other words, social connections are embedded in such spatially and temporally informed data. Therefore, it is possible and highly beneficial to explore data in the integrated social-spatial-temporal dimensions. Traditional models were not developed for the high dimensional dynamics. New analytical models are in great demand to analyse the data to discover patterns and relationships in social-temporal-social dimensions.

Our knowledge of how cities bring together different social classes is still limited. Much effort has been devoted to investigating residential segregation, mostly over well-defined social groups (e.g. race). Little is known of how mobility and human communications affect urban social integration. The dynamics of spatial and social-network segregation and individual variations along these two dimensions are largely untapped. In this article, we put forward a computational framework based on coupling large-scale information on human mobility, social-network connections and people’s socio-economic status (SES), to provide a breakthrough in our understanding of the dynamics of spatio-temporal and social-network segregation in cities. Building on top of a social similarity measure, the framework can be used to depict segregation dynamics down to the individual level, and meanwhile, provide aggregate measurements at the scale of places and cities, and their evolution over time. By applying the methodology in Singapore using large-scale mobile phone and socio-economic datasets, we find a relatively higher level of segregation among relatively wealthier classes, a finding that holds for both social and physical space. We also highlight the interplay between the effect of distance decay and homophily as forces that determine communication intensity, defining a notion of characteristic ‘homophily distance’ that can be used to measure social segregation across cities. The time-resolved analysis reveals the changing landscape of urban segregation and the time-varying roles of places. Segregations in physical and social space are weakly correlated at the individual level but highly correlated when grouped across at least hundreds of individuals. The methodology and analysis presented in this paper enable a deeper understanding of the dynamics of human segregation in social and physical space, which can assist social scientists, planners and city authorities in the design of more integrated cities.

Research objectives (aims) and problem(s): The study aims (1) to analyze the main educational solutions for children with migration experience in Polish schools, with reference to academic literature and current legal regulations from the last ten years; and (2) to evaluate how these solutions meet the needs of specific groups of pupils with migration experience, with particular attention to integration-support strategies and the barriers encountered in this context. Research methods: The study is based on a narrative literature review of selected academic publications, reports, and legal regulations from the last ten years concerning the education of children with migration experience, approached from an interdisciplinary perspective. The review was qualitative and intended to provide answers to research questions such as: What is the cultural diversity of Polish schools? What are the specific characteristics of the various groups of migrant pupils? What educational solutions are currently in place? How do they respond to the needs of diverse groups of migrant pupils? What support is provided for integration? What barriers to integration are posed by the adopted educational solutions? Process of argumentation: The article begins by presenting Polish schools as culturally diverse environments formed by different groups of children with migration experience. As a point of reference, selected acculturation strategies are then outlined and contextualized within the school setting. Next, the main educational solutions for children with migration experience implemented in Polish schools are described. A key section of the article analyzes the barriers to integration encountered by pupils with various migration experiences in the educational environment. Research findings and their impact on the development of educational sciences: Polish schools are currently characterized by significant cultural diversity and host pupils with a wide range of migration experiences. The needs of these pupils, including integration needs, vary according to their individual experiences. Language skills—particularly proficiency in the language of instruction—are crucial for successful integration. The main barriers to education for pupils with migrant experience include linguistic, educational, and emotional challenges. The study offers an innovative perspective by linking diverse types of migration experience to existing educational solutions and examining their significance for the integration of students into both Polish schools and Polish society. Conclusions and/or recommendations: There is considerable potential for integration through the inclusion of migrant pupils in mainstream classes; however, this may not be suitable for children with refugee backgrounds. Education in preparatory classes must be adapted to the specific needs of these pupils. The Polish education system requires changes toward becoming more inclusive and responsive to the individual needs and well-being of all children, with particular attention to the unique circumstances of pupils with migration experience.

SummaryThe paper argues that in many (if not most) cases, explicitly representing aspects of both physical and social space will be necessary in order to capture the outcomes of observed social processes (including those of spatial distribution). The connection between social and physical spaces for an actor will, almost inevitably involve some aspect of cognition. Thus, unless there is evidence to the contrary it is unsafe to try and represent such social distribution without representing key aspects of cognition linking social and spatial topologies. This argument is demonstrated by two counter-examples: an abstract simulation extending Schelling’s cellular automata model of racial segregation to include the social communication of fear; and a more descriptive simulation of social influence and domestic water consumption. Both models are sufficiently credible that one could not rule similar processes as occurring in reality, but in both the social and physical spaces that the agents are embedded in is critical to the global outcomes.

Social work space is emerging as a major avenue for sharing knowledge and the creation of social capital. Social space and physical space needs to be in balance. Virtual space must also be included in this mix. The physical work environment can support the new sense of place and space in the knowledge work. This paper discusses how to use tangible assets to make intangible social space perform better. In this paper the problem is approached by analysing the balance between physical, social and virtual space. The method used is based on “type” analysis, which uses the structure of a four‐quadrant model based on twin axis for the knowledge production circle. The focus is on the space needed in different phases of creating knowledge. The results of the pilot test show that work environments tend to support explicit knowledge sharing but fail to support tacit knowledge exchange.

Objective: This interdisciplinary research explores cultural identity and acculturation in Asian countries during global migration, providing insights into migrant experiences, discrimination, and acculturation processes, aiming for policymakers' understanding. Theoretical Framework: This interdisciplinary research explores cultural identity and acculturation in Asian countries through a framework incorporating acculturation theories, cultural identity studies, and migration and discrimination literature. It aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of migrant communities' experiences and interactions with host cultures, shedding light on the complexities of identity formation. Method: The research uses a mixed-methods approach to study cultural identity and acculturation among migrant communities in Asian countries. It uses a purposive sampling strategy, collects data through surveys, interviews, and cultural analysis tools. The findings are integrated using statistical techniques and analyzed thematically. Ethical considerations are followed to protect participants' rights and confidentiality. This approach provides nuanced insights into the experiences and challenges faced by migrants in diverse cultural contexts. Results: The study explores the cultural identity and acculturation of migrant communities in Asian countries, revealing diverse patterns and factors like residence, socioeconomic status, and social support networks. It also highlights discrimination and the resilience of migrant communities in navigating cultural transitions. The findings emphasize the importance of a holistic approach to migrant populations, promoting cultural diversity and inclusive practices. Implications of the research: The research provides evidence-based insights for policymakers to develop culturally sensitive policies for migrant communities, promoting social cohesion. Social integration initiatives can tailor programs to meet migrant needs, raise awareness of discrimination, inform further research, empower migrant communities, and foster cultural exchange. The findings underscore the importance of addressing migrant challenges and promoting equity, dignity, and social justice. Originality/value: This research focuses on Asian migration patterns, offering unique insights into cultural identity and acculturation. It uses an interdisciplinary approach, combining sociology, psychology, anthropology, and cultural studies. The mixed-methods design provides nuanced understanding of migrant experiences. The findings have practical implications for policymakers and community organizations, promoting social inclusion and cultural diversity.

This paper shows how a visual method was used in a way that helped in creating spaces with participants for collaboration, participation, and engagement in the research process as well as in the construction and the embodiment of the self. This particular work is part of a wider ethnographic research project with Palestinian adolescents (ages 15-17) in their school context. The paper also highlights the journey of the researcher who positioned herself as part of the field and her interaction with the context and with participants, and the experiences, moments, and spaces that were co-constructed. The already existing school context and culture allowed for such spaces to emerge, and therefore research activities and events were embedded within and were created from within the context. Chosen moments of self and identity were mainly embodied through ‘expressive’ self-portraits using collage, but not limited to it. However, in this contribution our intention is not to focus on the visual product as a final expression of the self, but on the process of self-construction that was taking place continuously through different art processes and other moments over an extended period of time. We argue that a visual method in addition to opening up spaces of possibilities for collaboration, it also opened up spaces of possibilities for the self. We stress that the context composed of time, space, and audience are essential to what and how the self is embodied and performed.

A visual editing tool supporting the production of 3D interactive graphics assets for public exhibitions

Australian Rules football is one of Australia’s most popular sports for both spectators and participants. For women who play in this team, the sport offers a unique outlet within which to engage in a women-only space, in a physical, full-contact pursuit, and in what ostensibly remains a ‘male’ sport. When women in this team play Australian Rules football they interact in ways that other social spaces neither demand nor offer. As a domain largely defined by female same-sex sociality, women’s Australian Rules football is a social and cultural space that offers a unique set of circumstances within which to explore women’s same-sex bonds. I use this sport to explore the homosocial dynamics that take place amongst women in such a space, drawing on Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Sharon Marcus, Henriette Gunkel and Nancy Finley to build on the theoretical discourses of ‘homosociality’ and ‘intragender relations’. Further, I use Brian Pronger’s work to explore the sportscape of a women’s Australian Rules football team. In drawing on these theoretical frameworks, I analyse the intersections of embodiment, physicality, gender and space for women who play in this Australian Rules football team, pointing to the implications of women’s same-sex sociality more broadly. Using a visual methodology and drawing on the work of Gerry Bloustein and Gillian Rose, I investigate what we might ‘picture’- both literally and metaphorically, when we draw on visual imagery in sports and gender research. Specifically I use what I term ‘photo projects’ and photo elicitation interviews and, through analysis of photographs created by eight women in one Australian Rules football team, I engage in an in-depth analysis of what this social, physical, gendered, sexualised space means for women who play. Building on homosociality as a framework for theorising women’s same sex bonds that may be applied not only in this field but to female homosocial spaces more generally, I question what this women’s Australian Rules football team tells us about gender, embodiment and physicality. What does it mean for gender when women engage in a sport so deeply entrenched in masculinity and maleness and how do the women in this team negotiate this experience? Exploring what a visual methodology has to offer gender and sports sociology research I question what we might see through a visual methodology that non-visual methods do not have the scope to elucidate. Further I contribute to research on visual methodologies through the development of complimentary research methods, including photo projects and a staged training session, both mechanisms for engaging subjects in generating visual data for the study. Through research into this sportscape I demonstrate how space is constructed as physical as well as imaginary. In doing so I build on Pronger’s work, exploring the mobility and transience of the sportscape and the resonance of such for women who play football. Lastly, through engaging with this sportscape and women’s experiences of this sportscape I look at how women are impacted by and simultaneously impact on the sportscape. Research into this women’s Australian Rules football team illuminates this sportscape as a useful sociological field for engaging with the intersections of gender, embodiment and physicality. Further, by demonstrating the different ways that female homosocial bonds manifest, this thesis contributes new ways of thinking about intragender relations in sport sociology.

This paper delves into the context, content, and audience interaction of design-related short videos on Bilibili, examining their impact on design discourse. The study reveals that these short videos merge professional and popular design discourses, making design more accessible to the general public through unique narrative and visual methods. These videos not only provide design knowledge and technical demonstrations but also reflect a critique of fast-paced living and modern consumer culture. Through interactive features such as bullet comments and reviews, a diverse and interactive design discourse space has formed, where the boundaries between designers and viewers are increasingly blurred, facilitating the widespread dissemination of design concepts and innovative methods. Additionally, the platform's algorithms significantly influence the recommendation of video content, further shaping the paths of design discourse dissemination and audience reach. In summary, as a new media tool for design communication, design-related short videos not only broaden the audience for design but also promote the diverse development of design culture.