Formal Spaces Research Articles

Making the ropes: How daily practices in a booming periurban municipality become durable 'gray' institutions shaping land use

Predictable unwritten rules arguably are at the heart of all land development processes. How do these practices emerge and remain in local land governance? While municipal land use offices are increasingly one of the few remaining formal spaces for the state to review and negotiate legal urbanization in Mexico and many other contexts, literatures on implementation in local policy and development in Mexico and the South are nascent, and typically bypass both daily practices and municipal offices as arenas for meaningful institutional emergence or intervention. This article examines how land use officials developed and sustained a small set of repeating daily practices managing requests for development in Tlajomulco de Zúñiga, a rapidly growing outskirt of Guadalajara, Mexico. A sociological-institutionalist approach draws on ethnographic and case study methodologies to examine material from over 40 interviews and 25 hours of observation in the land use permitting department of Tlajomulco as well as internal documents, official laws and plans, and media accounts. The resulting analysis suggests that Tlajomulco's land use officials developed and sustained a broad array of legal yet informal patterns of daily practice ('gray institutions') in part through an unusual fifteen-year period of relative staff continuity. The land use staff also took strategic actions to increase the strength of their gray institutions: these included maintaining discourses of valuing collective knowledge and pride in 'tinkering', promoting skills and abilities to engage with formal regulations, and mediating their relational networks through strategic downplaying of their power and knowledge. Centering institutionalized practices of local land use offices such as Tlajomulco -and outlining how they emerge and remain- can help planners better understand the processes of planning 'as it happens', chart arenas of localized innovation and improvisation, and expand the terrains of decentered planning knowledge and land use implementation.

Cartographies of Everyday Conflicts in Public Spaces. Informal Micro-activities on Formal Infrastructure. Carapungo Entry Park, Quito

Through the understanding of cartography as an alternative representation tool, this paper researches the existing and usually invisible relationships between informal micro-activities and formal public spaces. For this purpose, Carapungo Entry Park located in the north of Quito (Ecuador), is taken as a case study, being a paradigmatic case of the complexity and multiplicity that constitutes informality in Latin American cities. After a first analysis based on the formal planning of this park, we will focus on dissident spatial practices carried out by inhabitants who occupy and appropriate a formal space. These situations of conflict originate spatial constructions based on spontaneity, fluidity, adaptability, movement, and temporality, which include local culture, economy, and social interaction. With the production of cartographies, the processes and activities generated by formal and informal vendors, passers-by, and public transport passengers, are made visible and analyzed. The expected results based on cartography as an alternative representation, are the presentation of relations of tensions, forces, conflicts, and negotiations that allow us to identify patterns, trends and behaviors that have no place in the supposed precision and rigor of the regulations in the formal planning of public space.

Youth inclusion in peace processes: the case of the Bangsamoro transition authority in Mindanao, Philippines

ABSTRACT Drawing on the post-accord case of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) in the region of Muslim Mindanao, this research examines how far youth’s vertical integration in formal political institutions is influenced by both structural association and youth’s agential capacity. While association with the formal structural elements enables elite youth’s entry into the formal space, the latter’s agential capacity shapes the nature of that inclusion over the long-term. Positive intergenerational collaboration and interdependence between Moro elders and the Moro youth supports this process, although inclusion remains limited to only a minority of the youthful population. New empirical data collected through primary research with the elders and young Moro ministers in the BTA is used to demonstrate the workings of our argument around the importance of intergenerational collaboration and support from the elders, for a wider inclusion of young people’s skills and voices into post-conflict governance institutions.

Designing Natural Atmosphere in Office Environment Through Daylight Responsive Dynamic Lighting

Often the criteria for designing office lighting is to increase efficiency through a bright and evenly distributed lighting. Yet, research has found that this static lighting leads to an unstimulating, boring, and dull luminous environment that supports neither task focus, nor a pleasant atmosphere. The goal of this paper is to create a closer connection to a natural light environment by designing an office lighting that inspired by light as natural phenomenon creates a lively and more nature-based atmosphere. We developed a lighting design with focus on analysing the perceived atmosphere as a metric for a dynamic lighting design for a meeting room of a real estate company in Denmark. Through a mixed method approach, we explore the design factors that determine the desired natural atmosphere. Our design aims at enhancing the function of the meeting room as a formal space where negotiations are held by 1) presenting the identity of the company to the business partners; and 2) supporting employees’ sense of belonging to the company culture. As a result, our lighting design creates a lighting hierarchy in line with the architectural elements of the space, complementing daylight through electric lighting in a dynamic way, accounting for both sky-type and daylight inflow.

REFLECTIONS ON TEACHING COMPOSITION FOR CONFIDENCE, EQUITY AND COMMUNITY

AbstractThe increasing precarity of arts academic jobs, combined with a much needed focus on equity and decolonisation, are de-privileging and destabilising the experimental music tradition and contemporary composer identity. As a result, composition departments are pursuing a paradox: scrambling to focus on specific marketable skills while also broadening the genres taught. After teaching in a composition department, a generalised arts department and a prison college programme, I describe methods to provide skills training for students interested in different genres, even if those genres are not the specialty of a department's faculty. These include: (1) discrete ‘levels’ of creative thought, from high-level questions of art's purpose to ground-level skills training; (2) creative process assignments, in which students plan and document their way through a prompt, developing a practical discipline into which desired skills can be incorporated; and (3) formal spaces for students to learn from each other, one-on-one, getting deeper into the similarities and differences they have. The goal is to empower students not simply via marketability, but by developing a sense of vocation without tethering creativity to employment, so that students may more realistically and more potently design their own lives in music.

Local Women and Building the Peace: Narratives from Africa

Inadequate attention is given to the influence of local women in fostering peace. Scholars and policymakers in striving to plug this deficit now pay more attention to the contributions women make to peace. This article supports this reorientation and makes a case for encouraging local women in peace processes by pointing out the difficulties in ending conflict when they channel their efforts to conflict exacerbation out of being denied formal spaces to contribute to peace. Using events from the conflict in Liberia (1989–2003), Burundi (1993–2005) and Sudan’s Darfur (2007 to date), this study points to the significance of harnessing the energies of local women in forging peace during conflict and sustaining it post conflict. Using descriptive analysis, this article argues in support of conventional feminist thought that the absence of women from peace initiatives conjures a vital missing link in achieving stability.

Policing, Democratic Participation, and the Reproduction of Asymmetric Citizenship

Can democratic participation reduce inequalities in citizenship produced by policing? We argue that citizen participation in policing produces a paradox, which we call asymmetric citizenship. For some citizens, expanding participation in policing expands citizenship by enhancing state responsiveness to demands. Yet citizen participation in policing often produces demands to repress marginalized groups, thereby contracting their citizenship rights. We theorize that formal spaces for citizen participation in policing produce asymmetric citizenship through three mechanisms: (1) defining some groups as “virtuous citizens” and labeling marginalized groups as “security threats,” (2) gatekeeping to amplify the voice of “virtuous citizens” while silencing marginalized groups, and (3) articulating demands for police repression of marginalized groups to protect the rights of “virtuous citizens.” We illustrate the framework through a qualitative analysis of São Paulo’s Community Security Councils. Our analysis elucidates mechanisms through which democratic participation can reproduce, rather than ameliorate, inequality in policing.

Formal learning spaces in Higher Education – a systematic review

ABSTRACT Over the past ten years, there has been an increasing focus on physical learning spaces in higher education. By now, what do we really know about the relation between space and student learning? What does the research landscape look like, and how has it developed? A systematic review of peer-reviewed 108 articles on the physical learning space for the period 2009–2019 was performed. A broad and fragmented field emerged that is to some extent under-researched and under-theorized. Few articles contain theory sections, and very few authors refer to each other’s work in their articles. On the other hand, a diversity of themes, methods and perspectives can be seen. Overall, the review can contribute to an overview of what we know – and what we do not know – about the complex relationship between student learning and learning spaces.

Turning the Corner from Epistemic Myopia to Gnostic Rasa: Dances From South Asia and Postsecondary Dance Programs

ABSTRACT The need for a shift in approach to dance education and non-Eurocentric dance forms in postsecondary dance programs is apparent. This paper begins with a fundamental why and then offers the frameworks of gnosis (knowledge by perception) and episteme (knowledge by systematic study) and process-based teaching-learning as viable approaches to inclusion. Embracing values such as inquiry, plurality, and reflection is essential to postsecondary dance programs including South Asian dances, whether in formal academic structures or informal spaces of partnership. Simultaneously, South Asian dancer-collaborators take on response and responsibility in this work and reflect deeply on what we know, as we share our knowledge. This paper enumerates possible manifestations of including South Asian dances in postsecondary education, which depend on dance programs fully embracing new approaches in education. Together with South Asian collaborators, programs can perform their work so that all participants relish the rasa (profound engagement) of the experience.

On the group of self-homotopy equivalences of an almost formal space

A simply connected CW-complex X of finite type is called almost formal if and if the rational Hurewicz homomorphism is injective for every n ≥ 1. In this paper, we show that the group of self-homotopy equivalences of an almost formal space inducing the identity on the homology is finite.

Stone dualities from opfibrations

Stone dualities are dual equivalences between certain categories of algebras and those of topological spaces. A Stone duality is often derived from a dual adjunction between such categories by cutting down unnecessary objects. This dual adjunction is called the fundamental adjunction of the duality, but building it often requires concrete topological arguments. The aim of this paper is to construct fundamental adjunctions generically using (op)fibered category theory. This paper defines an abstract notion of formal spaces (including ordinary topological spaces as the leading example), and gives a construction of a fundamental adjunction between the category of algebras and the category of corresponding formal spaces. Moreover, prove an Adjoint Lifting Theorem in the setting of near 2-fibrations, and construct the fundamental adjunction of Priestley duality.

Play-Friendly Communities in Nova Scotia, Canada: A Content Analysis of Physical Activity and Active Transportation Strategies.

The Play-Friendly Cities framework describes key municipal actions and indicators which support a community’s playability and can positively influence children’s health behaviors and quality of life. The purpose of this study was to conduct a content analysis of Nova Scotia physical activity (PA) and active transportation (AT) strategies by applying the playability criteria in the Play-Friendly Cities framework. Methods: PA and AT strategies from communities across Nova Scotia were assessed using the Play-Friendly Cities framework. Strategy content was analyzed based on indicators across four themes: participation of children in decision making, safe and active routes around the community, safe and accessible informal play environments, and evidence-informed design of formal play spaces. Results: Forty-two (28 PA,14 AT) strategies were reviewed and all included statements reflective of at least one indicator (8 ± 4; range: 1–14). Content about safe and active routes around the community was most prevalent (41 plans, 812 mentions), while participation of children in decision making was least frequently presented (18 plans, 39 mentions). Content about safe and accessible informal play environments (31 plans, 119 mentions) and evidence-informed design of formal play spaces (28 plans, 199 mentions) was also present. Conclusions: All PA and AT strategies included some content reflective of a Play-Friendly City; however, there was great variability in the number of included indicators. This summary provides key information on opportunities, such as increasing meaningful involvement of children in decision making, that can inform future municipal actions and policies to improve a community’s playability.

Sex work community participation in criminalized environments: a community-based cohort study of occupational health impacts in Vancouver, Canada: 2010\u20132019

BackgroundSex work criminalization and occupational stigma pose barriers to sex workers’ access to support services, including community participation — engagement with sex work specific community organizing at both formalized and grassroots capacities. In light of gaps in evidence regarding impacts of community participation on sex workers’ occupational health in higher-income settings, we evaluated engagement in community participation and associations with occupational sexual health outcomes among sex workers in Vancouver, Canada.MethodsProspective data from a community-based cohort of 943 women sex workers in Vancouver, British Columbia (2010–2019). We used logistic regression with generalised estimating equations (GEE) to model correlates of community participation, and a confounder modeling approach to examine the association of community participation on sexually transmitted infection (STI) seropositivity.ResultsAmong participants, 38.1% were Indigenous, 31.4% identified as women of colour (e.g., East Asian, Southeast Asian, Black) and 29.3% were im/migrants to Canada. Over a quarter (28.3%, n = 267) serviced in informal indoor spaces, while 38.0% (n = 358) serviced clients in outdoor/public and 31.4% (n = 296) in formal in-call spaces. 8.9% of participants reported sex work community participation at least once over the 9-year study. In multivariable GEE analysis, Indigenous (adjusted odds ratio(aOR) 1.71, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.88–3.32) and trans women (aOR 4.69, 95%CI 2.43–9.06) had higher odds of community participation; women of colour had lower odds (aOR 0.18, 95%CI 0.06–0.57). In a multivariable GEE confounder model, community participation was independently associated with lower odds of STI seropositivity (aOR 0.66, 95% CI0.45–0.96).ConclusionSex workers who engaged in sex work community participation faced reduced odds of STI seropositivity. Building off reserach evaluating community interventions in low and middle income contexts, our study provides some of the first quantitative evidence on community participation among sex workers in Canada, and is the first to examine this in relation to sexual health outcomes. This research demonstrates the need to scale up community participation access for sex workers, via linguistically diverse community spaces, anti-stigma initiatives, and decriminalization to reduce barriers faced by racialized sex workers and support occupational health and rights for all sex workers.

The Politics of Aesthetic Preference in Participatory Music

Bringing together an array of interdisciplinary subjects, this article seeks to proffer a theory of political aesthetic preference emergent within participatory musical works. Beginning with an overview of imitation in music and then recapping the critical work advanced by Kofi Agawu and Jean-Jacques Nattiez on musical semiology, this article first delves into how musical signs are interpreted and propagated within participatory settings. Subsequently, using Jürgen Habermas’s influential theory on the public sphere as well as the critical revisions to said theory proposed by Nancy Fraser and Michael Warner, participatory musics are conceptualised as constituting the formal space of a public in which the aesthetic direction of a participatory music work is negotiated among participants. Based on an analysis of Luke Dahl, Jorge Herrera and Carr Wilkerson’s multi-user instrument and participatory work TweetDreams, this article discusses the ways in which participant inputs and choices impact the poietic process of the work due to the clear rules that are set up within its interactive and algorithmic protocols for sonification. It concludes by pointing towards other recent research on participatory works, where the framing of participatory musics as a political–aesthetic space leads to broader questions about audience power and how the latter is negotiated and shared, then poses questions for future research on the audience’s choice in refusal and dissensus.

Building feminist peace: gender, legal reforms and social reproduction after the United Nations Mission in Liberia

This article explores efforts to attain feminist peace in Liberia by critically examining the implementation of gender-sensitive provisions in two national reforms that seek to transform the country after war: the Land Rights Act 2018 and the Local Government Act 2018. Drawing from extensive fieldwork, it argues that these reforms are sites of struggle between the goal of national transformation towards feminist peace and the reproduction of existing socio-political cleavages, with a particular focus on (certain) women’s political, socio-economic and gender oppression. The article also demonstrates how despite implementation failures and lack of consultation, these legal reforms open new (in)formal spaces for building feminist peace. Attending to the ways in which women resist and mobilise in these newly (in)formal spaces, the article brings to light the peace work these women are doing for transforming post-war gender regimes that prevent women’s representation and a more equitable redistribution of power and resources.

WhatsApp’s Potential to Broaden Online Teaching and Learning: Perceptions of Undergraduate Students From One South African University

Aim/Purpose: Social media platforms have been increasingly incorporated into teaching and learning. However, studies using mixed methods to explore WhatsApp’s potential to broaden online teaching and learning remain limited. Background: This study reports the experiences and perspectives of undergraduate students in terms of their WhatsApp usage patterns and preferences during COVID-19 using a sequential mixed method. Methodology: Through a quantitative survey of undergraduate students from the Education Faculty in one South African university, quantitative data were collected from 92 participants. Qualitative interviews were followed with ten willing participants to further explore their perceptions and preference. Contribution: This study addresses the literature gap identified by Klein et al. (2018, p. 2) that “few studies that explore WhatsApp use in the natural environment of higher education” and the methodology gap Hashim identifies (2018) that the majority of the literature adopts a quantitative research methodology while only 10% use the mixed method. Our intention is set specifically on WhatsApp’s potential to broaden online teaching as the new norm beyond merely as a supplement teaching platform before COVID-19 or emergency remote teaching mode that WhatsApp serves since the onset of COVID-19. We triangulated the behaviors and perceptions of first-time WhatsApp users (scarcely separately discussed in the literature) and gender to ascertain lessons for more targeted strategies for more effective WhatsApp use. Another unique feature and novelty of this study is our separate analysis of active (e.g., initiating query or discussion) and passive use (e.g., receiving information). Findings: Our findings confirm that COVID-19 has accelerated universities’ digital transition as WhatsApp’s usage has undergone a great expansion from informal to formal spaces. However, informal use among students remains strong, particularly among first-time WhatsApp users. Communication remains one of the primary functions of WhatsApp in teaching and learning, but content-related functions and student discussion activities are clearly feasible and prevalent. However, passive use remains slightly more prevalent than active use even amongst frequent WhatsApp users. WhatsApp’s assignment-related usage is high but mainly limited to queries rather than assessment submissions or marking. Both WhatsApp’s usage and perceived usefulness has surpassed that of e-mail and of the university’s learning management system (LMS) where WhatsApp group functions seem to have contributed greatly to the perceived usefulness. Articulated advantages and challenges of WhatsApp largely corroborate with those identified in the literature, although our participants show some ambiguity concerning WhatsApp’s low cost as its main benefit. Recommendations for Practitioners: WhatsApp’s usages are versatile. So are its perceived benefits. However, practitioners need to consciously encourage its usage beyond passive use and also consider how WhatsApp can be incorporated into marking. Recommendation for Researchers: We found inconsistency regarding perceived benefits related to WhatsApp’s cost. Cost is important in low resource context and this inconsistency merits further examination. Our finding regarding WhatsApp’s limitation in terms of marking is not consistent with some literature. As marking functionality impacts broadening WhatsApp’s usage in teaching and learning, how WhatsApp has and potentially can be incorporated into LMS should be further explored. Impact on Society: WhatsApp has great potential to broaden online learning in higher education. However, it also has its limitation. This study demonstrates that WhatsApp can serve most teaching and learning functions in higher education. However, how these benefits and limitations impact different groups of users (e.g., 1st-time users, frequent users, gender, etc.) should be more consciously thought of, so is how more active use can be encouraged. Future Research: Further studies should examine whether the low cost is an important consideration in students’ preference for WhatsApp. Further studies should also explore how WhatsApp can be better used for marking.

The Politics of Student Voice: The Power and Potential of Students as Policy Actors

Historically and contemporarily students have been critical to bringing issues of justice in education policy to the fore. Yet, there have been limited formal spaces that elevate student voice scholarship in educational policy. In response, this Politics of Education Association (PEA) Yearbook Issue of Educational Policy aims to serve as a platform for opening up new areas for investigation, especially connections between theory to practice specific to student voice in educational policy and the politics of education. This collection of feature articles and research briefs offer diverse examples of how students are influencing change in education policy and practice, while also presenting the political realities and tensions that emerge when students participate in policy leadership activities.

“All this Regulatory Uncertainty in the Air”: The Indispensability of Public Hearings in Guarding and Guiding Public Deliberation

The field of Environmental Communication has often critiqued the shortcomings of public hearings, noting their limitations in bringing about effective and equitable public decision making. While this work has been significant, it has tended to limit the deliberative field to public hearings themselves, sometimes going so far as to assume that public hearings are the only spaces in which significant deliberations occur. Using a field analysis of the “No Coal Plant” campaign in Surry County, Virginia (2008–2013), the authors illuminate some limitations of existing literature. Their analysis suggests that while public hearings can be extremely limiting, even “failed” public hearings can play a critical role in constituting, organizing, and pacing formal and informal deliberative spaces, which are necessary for communities as they manage the stresses and strains of the decision-making process.

The Spectrum of Mapping Ideals of Type Variable Exponent Function Space of Complex Variables with Some Applications

The topological and geometric behaviors of the variable exponent formal power series space, as well as the prequasi-ideal construction by s -numbers and this function space of complex variables, are investigated in this article. Upper bounds for s -numbers of infinite series of the weighted n th power forward and backward shift operator on this function space are being investigated, with applications to some entire functions.

Generative Form-finding for Acceptable Formal and Informal Architectural Spaces

The rise in new design approaches using Generative Form Finding is taking the world by storm. The possibility to use computing power to obtain the best performing design solutions to a design problem is the future guide to designing architecture. All architectural spaces have a certain degree of satisfaction associated with them. This can be a direct link to how socially acceptable they are for a user group. This paper combines social acceptance survey equations and fuzzy addition techniques to create a logic for testing social acceptance of different design solutions obtained through a generative form-finding approach. This will help the computer to evaluate the acceptance of a design proposal before execution and shall aid the human designer to quickly identify the best design solutions as per acceptability by the society, thereby reducing the time lag between the design optimization and the final design selection process during Generative form-finding.