Platform nations

This article introduces the concept of platform nations to capture an important recent shift in the way nations and nationalism operate in the public domain. If the rise of the internet initially led to a weakening of state control over public expressions of national belonging, the growing monopoly of platforms enables states to reassert control over national imagination, while also opening doors for other political and corporate actors to interfere in the process. This shift appears to be contributing, at least in some parts of the world, to a disciplining of national imagination online, partially reversing the trend to greater democratisation seen in the early stages of the internet.     

THE COUNTED TIME: TECHNICAL TEMPORALITIES AND THEIR CHALLENGES TO HISTORY

One of the main debates regarding historical representation within digital media concerns narrative, particularly the difficulty in articulating it. Digital technologies are usually presented as opposed to linear, written narratives, which is of consequence to historical writing. Despite the many merits of scholarly approaches that try to circumvent this difficulty, the lack of theoretical understanding of the categories implied in such discussions is noticeable. To counter this, this article addresses the relationship between time, technics, and narrative. I contend that the challenges of crafting narratives in digital media conceal a problem pertaining to the relationship between time and technics. Drawing on Paul Ricoeur's work on narrative, Jimena Canales's studies of the history of science, Wolfgang Ernst's and Yuk Hui's discussions of technical temporality, and Bernard Stiegler's understanding of the relationship between time and technics, I argue that it is the temporality imbued in the workings of technical objects (such as computers) that renders them averse to narrative. In making this argument, I employ the notion of “counted time” (in contrast to Ricoeur's “narrative time”) to denote a temporal mode that, despite its intersections with social, human temporality, is alien to narrative.     

Towards lower carbon cities: urban morphology contribution in climate change adaptation strategies

Non-urbanized areas (NUAs) play an important role in reducing the effects of climate change by providing both carbon storage and sequestration. Urban areas are responsible for the emission of 60% of global greenhouse gas, 50% of which are produced by buildings. During the past decades, increasing urban growth and sprawl processes produced several urban layouts characterized by different morphological features and a common lack of sustainable energy and environmental solutions. Investigating the relationship between urban morphology, energy demand and carbon emission/sequestration represents a relevant topic for urban planning practices implemented to face urban climate change effects. This study proposes a method for a transformability assessment aimed at investigating the transformation suitability of different urban morphology types. The case study is the metropolitan area of Catania (Italy), characterized by an impressive urban growth since the 1960s. The proposed method identification of limits and options for increasing sustainability of urban areas considering the contribution of both NUAs and built-up areas. This approach allows to identify appropriate planning tools for new layouts of urban fabrics while increasing the objectivity of the decision process. In the framework of climate change mitigation and adaptation, the outcomes of this research may lead to innovative urban planning practices.     

Residential location,workplace location and car driving in four Norwegian cities

Based on a study in four Norwegian cities (Oslo, Stavanger/Sandnes, Bergen and Trondheim) differing in size and centre structure, this article illuminates how residential and workplace location, local-area density and transit accessibility influence different aspects of travel behaviour. We find strong effects of residential and workplace distance to the city centre on overall driving distances and commuting distances. We also find clear effects of local area densities around residences and workplaces on the choice of car as a travel mode, along with less pronounced effects of the distance from dwellings and workplaces to the city centre. In the cities with the best developed transit provision, we also see clear effects of transit accessibility at the residence on the propensity of choosing the car as travel mode. The results provide strong support of Norwegian national policies of urban densification as a planning strategy to curb the growth in urban motoring. However, although the influences of urban structure on travel show many similarities across the four cities, there are also important differences reflecting variations in centre structure (predominantly mono- or polycentric) and population size. The magnitude of the influences of various urban structural characteristics on travel behaviour are thus highly context-dependent.     

Pram mobilities: affordances and atmospheres that assemble childhood and motherhood on-the-move

The child-friendly city advocates for children's ‘right to the city’. Much of this advocacy focuses on the independent child, with little attention paid to the accompanied experiences of younger children, such as those travelling in prams. This paper draws on a material feminist perspective to help address this gap. We offer the concept of mother–child–pram assemblage to bring to the fore the corporeal dimensions of everyday pram journeys. By analysing sensory ethnographic materials collected with mothers and young children living in Wollongong, Australia, this paper highlights how the ‘affective affordances’ and ‘affective atmospheres’ of pram mobilities shape urban experience by reference to how motherhood and childhood are achieved on-the-move. We conclude with policy-relevant insights for the child-friendly city.     

Connected feminists: foregrounding the interpersonal in connective action

New social movement theories have been developed to address the organisational structures of activism in the age of digital platforms, but have tended to focus on structural questions rather than interpersonal dynamics. This paper engages with Bennett and Segerberg’s theory of connective action but uses a feminist lens to foreground the interpersonal dynamics between digitally equipped activists to develop a uniquely feminist account of connective action. It draws on Jo Freeman’s ‘tyranny of structurelessness’ to illustrate how informal organisation pervades new forms of connective action and continues to hamper the feminist movement. However, it also introduces and identifies the ‘feminist manager’ as an attempt to address the problematic practices of structurelessness and informality, and paves the way for consciously recognising the organisational structures required to advance the movement beyond consciousness-raising initiatives.     

Talking to others: analysing tourists’ communications on cultural heritage experiences

In the area of cultural heritage, tourists’ experiences emphasise not only the moment and its personal nature but also socio-cultural traits. These experiences when expressed (social communications) are an important gateway to knowledge about tourists’ sense-making processes. This paper reports on the mediation between tourists and heritage sites via comments on a digital platform (TripAdvisor) about two Spanish tourist destinations with opposing characteristics and four heritage sites, which are analysed. The methodology used seeks to transcend the individual and anecdotal aspects of tourists’ comments. Indeed, the results obtained show the relevance of the humanisation and the discursive weight of heritage contexts in emotional/personal stories. Tendencies observed in non-regulated contexts confirm the role of a complex negotiation at cultural heritage sites and highlight the need to explore possible exchanges of sense in tourists’ encounters with such sites.     

基于快递物流测度的区域流动空间特征——以江苏省为例

在信息技术推动下,流动空间作为新时期的新空间形式在带来时空压缩效应的同时不断地强化着区域城市间联系,推动着社会经济资源的城际流通。快递物流是互联网交易的虚拟流与快速交通实体流交互产生的物质流动,其代表了流动空间的虚实二元性,是研究流动空间网络特征的有效切入点。以江苏十三个城市为研究区域,以六家物流公司的网站数据为数据来源,采用权重分析法和重力模型方法建立起区域城市的快递物流水平、城市间流动空间连接度及城市快递物流总体评价等三项指标,结合区域流动空间的指标分析发现区域流动空间具有网络一体化、去中心化、扁平化、等级化及点轴式等五大特征,基于流动空间的可视化研究发现江苏省区域城市间关系显示出了一个具有等级特征的多中心扁平化点轴网络,围绕南京、苏州、徐州的都市圈一体化发展态势成为提高区域流动空间流动能力的重要突破方向。     

清末两级地方自治中的官治与自治模式

清末地方自治包括府厅州县和城镇乡地方自治两个层级,并建构了两个层级不同的官治与自治模式,即在城镇乡一级实行"以自治辅助官治",而府厅州县则实行"自治与官治合并"之制度。两种模式都借鉴了日本自治制度,但都有所不同。就清末城镇乡地方自治的运行来看,由于地方自治章程赋予官府监督自治之权,也由于自治团体为谋求地方利益,常常也会与官府对立,所以,官治与自治常常处于矛盾冲突之中。     

Tea Party imitators? The campaign against the carbon tax,the media and a new uncivil politics

The Gillard government's decision to reverse an election promise to not introduce a carbon tax prompted protest rallies around Australia during 2011–12. Beneath the hyperbole of critics who dismissed these protests as imitating US Tea Party extremism lies an intriguing possibility: that these are each examples of a new form of right-wing political expression enabled by structural changes in the media. This article considers the nature of the anti-carbon tax ‘people's revolt’ and its resemblance to the Tea Party. Both are a hybrid mix of top-down control and bottom-up grassroots populism whose emergence ‘outrage media’ facilitated. In a manner that echoes the support Fox News gave Tea Partiers, talkback radio in Sydney appears to have played a particular role shaping the identity, agenda and uncivil tone of the campaign against the carbon tax.

吉拉德政府决定背弃不征碳税的竞选承诺,在2011-12年引发了全澳大利亚的抗议示威。批评者将示威斥为对美国茶党极端主义的模仿。批评者夸张言辞的背后却是一种有趣的可能：此乃媒体结构变化所造成的、右翼政治表达的新形式。本文思考了反碳税“人民反叛”的性质,以及它与茶党的相似性。二者都是自上而下控制与自下而上草根民粹的混合,“愤怒的媒体”有利于它们的出现。就像狐狸新闻声援茶党那样,悉尼的对讲电台似乎在塑造反碳税运动的身份、议题以及粗暴的口吻方面发挥了特殊的作用。