Exploratory Models in a time of Big Data

This paper aims to trigger discourse about the emergence of a new type of social scientific model — Exploratory Models — which draw on Big Data, computer modeling and interdisciplinary research to tackle complex social scientific processes. First, we define Exploratory Models referring to Batty and Morgan and Morrison. We then present changes to the traditional modeling paradigm. We show how Exploratory Models circumvent challenges related to the idiosyncracy, self-reflexivity and acceleration of social phenomena, which limit predictive effectiveness of traditional models. We show that Exploratory Models are better equipped to tackle complex problems due to their capacity to process heterogeneous datasets. Having established that Exploratory Models are predominantly problem- and data-driven, we emphasize that scientific theory is indispensable to their progress. Finally, the development of an integrative platform is suggested as a way of maximizing the benefits of this approach. Discussion concludes by flagging areas for further research.     

Urban size and KIBS vertical disintegration: the case of Milan

The literature shows that market size favours firms’ vertical disintegration because it reduces transaction and knowledge coordination costs. The existing evidence is based primarily on cross-sectional data and on the manufacturing sector, with little or no attention is given to longitudinal data and services. This paper estimates the effect of urban size on the purchase of service inputs by knowledge-intensive business service firms located in the metropolitan region of Milan. Relying on a rich panel dataset, and adopting different econometric techniques to overcome endogeneity, we find a positive and statistically significant effect of increased urban population on the degree of KIBS vertical disintegration only when urban size is measured at the province level. We also find that this effect holds particularly in the case of traditional professional- rather than technology-related activities.     

Maritime Culture in the Netherlands: accessing the late medieval maritime cultural landscapes of the north‐eastern Zuiderzee

This paper examines the theory and practice of the maritime cultural landscape in general, and projects the theoretical concepts and aspects involved on the highly dynamic late medieval north‐eastern Zuiderzee region in the Netherlands. The cultivation of land and marine erosion (floods and rising sea level) are considered as the main factors that caused the transformation of the physical landscape of this region from peatlands with freshwater basins into a tidal lagoon. As a consequence, multiple settlements drowned, large areas of land submerged, and culture and the landscape gradually became more maritime, giving the research area a cultural identity and dimension.     

Justification for reassessing elemental analysis data of ceramics,sediments and lithics using rare earth element concentrations and ratios

The mensuration of multi‐elemental concentrations from assorted archaeological materials has always required great care and attention to detail to ensure good‐quality data and their ensuing interpretations. Although most suspect data were generated before the wide use of computers, error‐free data are not still a certainty. This paper presents the geochemical rationale for a proposed chemical data‐assessment process, using a globally dispersed collection of ceramic, sediment and lithic data. It is argued that this process can allow archaeologists and archaeometrists to investigate systematically older and current data sets and, if need be, alter them to the reliable values they were originally intended to include.     

Lichenometric constraints on the age of the Huashan Grottoes, East China

Lichenometry is a method of dating that has been widely used in glaciated areas for determining the minimum age of exposure of a geomorphic landform during the late Holocene. This paper presents a regional calibration data set of lichen thallus sizes versus rock surface ages for the Huashan area, East China, based on measurements of yellow-green Rhizocarpon lichens on the known-age substrates at eight sites. An empirical relationship between thallus sizes and rock surface ages was established using both the traditional regression and the Bayesian approaches. Using the Bayesian calibration, the minimum age of the Huashan Grottoes was dated from 450 ± 60 to 330 ± 60 years ago, corresponding to the late Ming Dynasty (AD 1477–1632). These dates are generally consistent with those predicted from the regression-based linear growth curve. Our results suggest that applications of this technique can be safely extended to the non-glaciated areas.     

The canopic jars of Rameses II: real use revealed by molecular study of organic residues

Four blue-glazed faience jars, on exhibition in the Louvre Museum, are referred to as the canopic jars of Rameses II. Their recent typological re-examination rendered this original assignment questionable. In order to clearly determine their use, a study of two successive organic residues from the canopic jars, using molecular biomarkers analysed by GC-MS and LC-MS and absolute dating by ¹⁴C, was initiated. The results revealed that these two materials were not contemporary to the reign of Rameses II. The first one, scraped from the interior face of one jar, was identified as an unguent made of coniferous oil and animal fat and dated from the Third Intermediate Period. The second one, originally stored with glued linen inside one jar, is likely an embalming substance, made of pure vegetable resin (Pistacia) and dated from the Ptolemaic Period. These results clarify a controversy which has been lasting over a century. The famous blue-glazed faience jars are not the canopic jars of Rameses II but are confirmed as situlae which were reused at least two times: first to store unguents during the Intermediate Period and later to store embalming packages of an unknown person during the Ptolemaic period.     

Ethnoarchaeology: A Non Historical Science of Reference Necessary for Interpreting the Past

Ethnoarchaeology appears nowadays as a poorly formulated field. However, it could become a real science of reference for interpreting the past if it was focused upon well-founded cross-cultural correlates, linking material culture with static and dynamic phenomena. For this purpose, such correlates have to be studied in terms of explanatory mechanisms. Cross-cultural correlates correspond to those regularities where explanatory mechanisms invoke universals. These universals can be studied by reference to the theories found in the different disciplines they relate to and which are situated outside of the domain of archaeology. In the domain of technology, cross-cultural correlates cover a wide range of static and dynamic phenomena. They allow the archaeologist to interpret archaeological facts—for which there is not necessarily analogue—in terms of local historical scenario as well as cultural evolution. In this respect, it is shown that ethnoarchaeology, when following appropriate methodologies and focussing on the universals that underlie the diversity of archaeological facts, does provide the reference data needed to climb up in the pyramid of inferences that make up our interpretative constructs.     

旅游地可持续生计：国际研究进展评述及其对中国的启示

系统梳理总结旅游地可持续生计的国际研究进展,对我国未来旅游地可持续生计研究具有重要启示与借鉴。文章基于Web of Science检索工具,对旅游地可持续生计的相关外文文献进行归纳与评述,在辨析可持续生计概念及分析框架的基础上,从脆弱性背景、生计资本评估、生计策略转型、结构与制度及生计结果五个方面总结了旅游发展对目的地可持续生计的影响作用,并进一步从旅游地可持续生计与生态保护及文化遗产发展之间的作用关系、旅游地可持续生计的适应性与恢复力等方面全面回顾了旅游地可持续生计与社会—生态系统协同发展的相关研究。基于旅游地可持续生计的国际研究述评,文章进一步展望了未来我国旅游地可持续生计研究的重点与方向。     

大数据背景下国内人文地理研究进展与方法审视

通过梳理人文地理领域杂志近年大数据文章解释其与大数据应用的关系，强调其应用给人文地理学研究带来机遇和挑战：①大数据作为研究方法，不能代替传统人文地理研究范式，而是对现研究方法的补充。大数据和小数据需对话交流；②大数据本身是一种话语权，嵌入人文地理研究系统。保证人文地理学多样性，避免过度依赖大数据，需在批判角度审视和运用；③需关注大数据对于人文地理学研究方法和思想的影响；④运用大数据解读地理和空间过程复杂性的同时，应看到大数据应用对公共服务的潜力，思考其结果如何更好的服务社会。     

Platform Capitalism’s Hidden Abode: Producing Data Assets in the Gig Economy

In this article, we argue that the governance of gig work under conditions of financialised platform capitalism is characterised by a process that we call “dual value production”: the monetary value produced by the service provided is augmented by the use and speculative value of the data produced before, during, and after service provision. App-governed gig workers hence function as pivotal conduits in software systems that produce digital data as a particular asset class. We reflect on the production of data assets and the unequal distribution of opportunities for their valorisation, after which we survey a number of strategies seeking data-centric worker empowerment. These strategies, we argue, are crucial attempts to push back against platform capitalism’s domination, bankrolled by what we term “meta-platforms”. Ultimately, it is the massive wealth and synergetic capacities of meta-platforms that constitute the most formidable obstacle to worker power and social justice in increasingly data-driven societies.