Perekrestki

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Ryhor Miniankou — 2020-05-04

Information about the journal

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Siarhei Liubimau — 2020-05-04

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Editor’s note: a Сritical Theory of the ‘public’ for digitally mediated urbanization

Siarhei Liubimau — 2020-05-04

The growing digitalization of human agency and habitat, as well as proliferation of user-generated data, have significantly transformed the horizons and challenges of research in the social sciences and humanities. The most obvious and persistent factor in this change is a rapid growth in access by various knowledge-producing actors to technologies of information creation and transmission. In this way, digitalization has launched a process of the re-definition of the autonomy of academia and of academic research as practice in relation to other practices of knowledge production and transmission. One can notice that in academia the most intensively explored development horizon within this process is an orientation towards quantification and the computational analysis of collective human behavior. In this orientation, the very nature of big data and of the quantification process is often unequivocally presented as a public asset that simply has to be mastered and used. There are already arguments about digitalization and big data as, on the one hand, fragmenting the public sphere as well as privatizing the knowledge of society about itself and, on the other, creating new modes of collective action and thus challenging hegemonic agendas. However, there is a lack of a systematic theorizing of the influence of digitalization on the meanings and practices of the ‘public’.

Combining GIS with Qualitative Methods in Urban Research

Aliaksandra Baravikova — 2020-05-04

The rise of Big Data, much of which contains spatial information, such as geotagged social media or GPS-tracked movements has provoked discussions about the salience of geospatial knowledge for how we understand and govern cities. This paper argues that attempts to make sense of “data avalanche” could benefit from taking a closer look at the critical arguments and practices of qualitative GIS research. Qualitative GIS (QGIS) emerged at the beginning of 2000s as a way to problematize the dominance of quantitative methods in geography and the power-laden nature of new technologies. Using the examples of QGIS application in urban studies literature, this paper discusses methodological and theoretical implications of different strategies to gather and analyze data (from simple geocoding to building customized applications). It explores how QGIS may give qualitative data a spatial dimension, open up opportunities for public participation and make the invisible visible, allowing to discover new patterns and therefore serving as a heuristic tool for research. This paper contributes to the ongoing discussion about the transformations of geographical knowledge by putting current debates into historical context. Learning from previous QGIS practices may also serve as a source of inspiration for future studies, allowing to shed new light upon relatively well-researched topics such as gender and the city, social exclusion, mobility or urban memories.

A Key to the Community’s Knowledge: Participatory Mapping Methodology in the Eastern European Context

Gintare Norkunaite and Arne Kunkel — 2020-05-04

During the past three decades, new forms of mapping have emerged. The cartography went beyond traditionally accepted mapping parties — institutions and academia. Maps can be created by everyone, facilitated by mass products, such as Google Earth, which Al Gore described as a “Digital Earth Initiative” (Crampton 2009: 91-92; Pickles 2004: 145–177). They are provided by technology giants, which became new, yet important players in cartography unimaginable 200 years ago. As a tool to encode and portray spatial knowledge, a map is widely used in the urban planning process. The changing economic situation and planning practices in Eastern Europe created conditions for integration of society’s voice into spatial planning. New tools are being created to facilitate representation of the new stakeholder — community — in the battle for power between the state, market, and society. This article provides theoretical investigation and practical examples (2 case studies) to explain specificities of participatory mapping in the broader cartography field, and to discover potentials and obstacles of participatory mapping applications in the Eastern European context. Both cases aimed to inspire residents by helping them understand potentials embedded in the spatial structure and architecture of a town, empower them by creating a critical mass with a commonly agreed public opinion on spatial changes. In the context where distrust in local government is common and residents feel incapable of steering a positive change in the development of a town, the two case studies provide methods to overcome these challenges. Even though both workshops use gamification, they employ different tools: geolocation of building blocks, and “a decision tree”.

Journalistic Investigations in the Digital Age of Post-Truth Politics: the Analysis of Bellingcat’s Research Approaches Used for the (Re)construction of the MH17 case

Yuliya Ilyuk — 2020-05-04

This article focuses on the analysis of approaches and technologies used by Bellingcat journalists while investigating the MH17 crash. The Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed on July 17, 2014 near the village of Hrabove (Donetsk Oblast) in Eastern Ukraine. The responsibility for the crash was placed on the participants of the military conflict, which was at its height in the region at the moment of the catastrophe. Not only the event became an international tragedy covered by media all around the world, but it also provided a new context for the information war between Russia, Ukraine and the West. Bellingcat positions itself as an independent website for investigations based on open source data. Their MH17 investigation provides a rich case for analysis of effective digital investigation tools in a situation of polyphonic reality. Using primarily digital cartographic tools and data found on social media, Bellingcat were able to create their own narrative of the MH17 crash, which has changed the way the event was discussed in the media. The conclusions that Bellingcat made during this investigation were cited by various mass media outlets all around the world and were taken into consideration by the Joint Investigation Team that was responsible for the official investigation of the catastrophe (Zijistra and Smit 2016). Thus, the aim of this paper is to analyze and systematize the methods (technologies and narrative tactics) used by Bellingcat for (re)constructing the MH17 crash.

(Dis)Empowering Technologies? Social Construction of Electronic Participation Tools

Iryna Lunevich — 2020-05-04

The paper aims to analyze the “Active Citizen” project, an electronic platform for e-referenda launched by the Moscow City Governments. The platform allows residents of Moscow to propose and vo.te on issues related to provision and management of urban services and infrastructure. Thus, the launch of the project represents the attempt of the Moscow Municipality to engage citizens in urban governance. Despite the municipal authorities’ claims of that the new e-governance platform stimulates the participation of citizens in urban governance, it is questionable whether the problem of the democratic deficit in public administration and urban planning could be solved by technical means only. The paper aims at dealing with the problem of public participation in urban governance both conceptually and empirically. The article puts the question of public participation in urban governance in the limelight of the STS debate about citizen engagement in technical decision-making. Furthermore, it applies the Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) approach to the analysis of the “Active Citizen” platform in order to answer the following research question: how does the “Active Citizen” transform the relationship among different actors involved in the process of urban development.

Review of the book by Deborah Lupton “The Quantified Self”. Cambridge: Polity, 2016

Siarhei Liubimau — 2020-05-04

Review of the book by Deborah Lupton “The Quantified Self”

Mark Dorrian “Writing on the Image: Architecture, the City and the Politics of Representation”. London; NY: I.B. Tauris, 2015

Benjamin Cope — 2020-05-04

Mark Dorrian “Writing on the Image: Architecture, the City and the Politics of Representation”.

Review of the Book by Jordan H. Carver “Spaces of Disappearance: the Architecture of Extraordinary Rendition”. New york: Terreform, 2018

Alexei Ovchinnikov — 2020-05-04

Review of the Book by Jordan H. Carver “Spaces of Disappearance...”

Review of the Book by Bas Van Heur “Creative Networka and the City. Towards a Cultural Political Economy of Aesthetic Production”. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, 2010

Siarhei Liubimau — 2020-05-04

Review of the Book by Bas Van Heur “Creative Networka and the City...”

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Siarhei Liubimau — 2020-05-04

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Siarhei Liubimau — 2020-05-04

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