How a Lingua Franca Spreads

Author(s):  
Fiona Mc Laughlin

This chapter considers how Wolof, an Atlantic language spoken in Senegal, has become an important lingua franca, and how French has contributed to the ascent of Wolof. The nature of social relations between Africans and French in cities along the Atlantic coast in the 18th and 19th centuries were such that a prestigious urban way of speaking Wolof that made liberal use of French borrowings became the language of the city. As an index of urban belonging, opportunity, and modernity, Wolof was viewed as a useful language, a trend that has continued up to the present. Four case studies illustrate how the use of Wolof facilitates mobility for speakers of other languages in Senegal. By drawing a distinction between the formal and informal language sectors, this chapter offers a more realistic view of everyday language practices in Senegal, where Wolof is the dominant language.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 593
Author(s):  
Lorenzo Lastilla ◽  
Valeria Belloni ◽  
Roberta Ravanelli ◽  
Mattia Crespi

DSM generation from satellite imagery is a long-lasting issue and it has been addressed in several ways over the years; however, expert and users are continuously searching for simpler but accurate and reliable software solutions. One of the latest ones is provided by the commercial software Agisoft Metashape (since version 1.6), previously known as Photoscan, which joins other already available open-source and commercial software tools. The present work aims to quantify the potential of the new Agisoft Metashape satellite processing module, considering that to the best knowledge of the authors, only two papers have been published, but none considering cross-sensor imagery. Here we investigated two different case studies to evaluate the accuracy of the generated DSMs. The first dataset consists of a triplet of Pléiades images acquired over the area of Trento and the Adige valley (Northern Italy), which is characterized by a great variety in terms of geomorphology, land uses and land covers. The second consists of a triplet composed of a WorldView-3 stereo pair and a GeoEye-1 image, acquired over the city of Matera (Southern Italy), one of the oldest settlements in the world, with the worldwide famous area of Sassi and a very rugged morphology in the surroundings. First, we carried out the accuracy assessment using the RPCs supplied by the satellite companies as part of the image metadata. Then, we refined the RPCs with an original independent terrain technique able to supply a new set of RPCs, using a set of GCPs adequately distributed across the regions of interest. The DSMs were generated both in a stereo and multi-view (triplet) configuration. We assessed the accuracy and completeness of these DSMs through a comparison with proper references, i.e., DSMs obtained through LiDAR technology. The impact of the RPC refinement on the DSM accuracy is high, ranging from 20 to 40% in terms of LE90. After the RPC refinement, we achieved an average overall LE90 <5.0 m (Trento) and <4.0 m (Matera) for the stereo configuration, and <5.5 m (Trento) and <4.5 m (Matera) for the multi-view (triplet) configuration, with an increase of completeness in the range 5–15% with respect to stereo pairs. Finally, we analyzed the impact of land cover on the accuracy of the generated DSMs; results for three classes (urban, agricultural, forest and semi-natural areas) are also supplied.


Multilingua ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
William Robert Amilan Cook

Abstract This paper takes up conviviality as an analytical tool to investigate everyday language choices made by foreign residents living in Ras Al Khaimah, a small city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It draws on recent work in human geography and cultural studies to understand conviviality in terms of practices rather than outcomes. Specifically, it investigates some of the linguistic dimensions of conviviality deployed by residents of the city in everyday situations of linguistic contact and negotiation of difference. The paper focuses on participants’ “small story” narratives (Georgakopoulou, Alexandra. 2015. Small stories research: Methods – analysis – outreach. In Anna De Fina & Alexandra Georgakopoulou (eds.), The handbook of narrative analysis, 255–272. Malden: John Wiley & Sons) that exemplify everyday language choices in the face of a highly ethnolinguistically diverse as well as racially and economically stratified society. Considering the multitude of ethnolinguistic and socioeconomic divisions in the city and the country as a whole, the paper unpacks how such cross-border contact is negotiated through everyday language practices. The paper identifies four types of convivial linguistic practices described by my participants: language sharing, benevolent interpretation, language checks and respectful language choices. In the process, I also probe the limits of what studying conviviality can tell us about everyday linguistic togetherness in highly segregated societies marked by stark inequalities.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1813 ◽  
Author(s):  
António Cavaleiro de Ferreira ◽  
Francesco Fuso-Nerini

Circular economy (CE) is an emerging concept that contrasts the linear economic system. This concept is particularly relevant for cities, currently hosting approximately 50% of the world’s population. Research gaps in the analysis and implementation of circular economy in cities are a significant barrier to its implementation. This paper presents a multi-sectorial and macro-meso level framework to monitor (and set goals for) circular economy implementation in cities. Based on literature and case studies, it encompasses CE key concepts, such as flexibility, modularity, and transparency. It is structured to include all sectors in which circular economy could be adopted in a city. The framework is then tested in Porto, Portugal, monitoring the circularity of the city and considering its different sectors.


Author(s):  
Angharad Closs Stephens ◽  
Martin Coward ◽  
Samuel Merrill ◽  
Shanti Sumartojo

Abstract This article examines affective responses to terror and the emergence of communities of sense in the commemoration of such attacks. We challenge the predominant framing of responses to terror which emphasize security and identity. We focus on the singular response by the city of Manchester in the aftermath of the 2017 Arena bombing, drawing on fieldwork conducted at the 1-year anniversary commemorative events. Our discussion focuses on the ways improvised, transient communities crystallized around the cultural significance of music during these events. The article explores these communities of sense through two case studies: those drawn together around the figure of Ariane Grande; and those assembled through a mass sing-along. In contrast to national or municipal responses to terror which orchestrate affect to establish narratives about security, borders and identity, we argue for the importance of paying attention to the improvised, affective ways in which people respond to terror. These plural, affective responses suggest another form of collective subjectivity. They also demonstrate the transient, plural, and everyday ways in which politics is practiced, assembled, and negotiated by different publics in response to terror.


Urban Studies ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (10) ◽  
pp. 2245-2260 ◽  
Author(s):  
H Chung

This paper investigates rural Chinese migrants’ agency through their multi-positionality and negotiated living strategies. The idea of ‘multi-positionality’ conceptualises a migrant’s mobility between physical locations and shifting social positions. Through individual migrants’ multi-positionality, this study discusses their place-specific social relations and thereby the diverse way to negotiate a living in villages-in-the-city in Guangzhou, China. These strategies include simple approaches such as facilitating physical movements between different locations and more sophisticated ones which develop multiple roles with outsiders and native villagers in different localities. While the former allows individual migrants to use their local knowledge to make a living in the context of institutional exclusion and discrimination, the latter further cultivates changes and an upgrade in social relations. Rural migrants' everyday stories are used to unfold an individual’s particular people–place relationship and how he/she has tapped into a place-specific resource to make a living. It does not aim to generalise rural migrants’ experience; rather it seeks to show diversity and complexity. Migrants’ stories are collected through extensive research in a village-in-the-city in Guangzhou, China. Through these stories, not only does this paper articulate the social relations which underlie individual migrants’ shifting positions, but also extends translocal studies on migrants beyond the narrative of physical locations.


Relations ◽  
2013 ◽  
pp. 9-22
Author(s):  
Sabrina Tonutti

This article reflects on some epistemological and methodological tenets of cultural anthropology such as the informants’ role in ethnographical research, the relation between collective phenomena and individuals, and that between case studies (individual level) and abstraction (generalization). These tenets will be addressed focusing on the lack of recognition of animals’ individuality and agency in social relations, and on the related humans/animals opposition. With the topic of the emotional lives of animals as a starting point, the essay sets out to reflect on how the narratives we use to interpret and describe them inform our enquiry within an anthropocentric and essentialist view, consequently biasing our understanding of diversity.


10.54179/2102 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabio Della Schiava

Augustine and the Humanists fills a persistent lacuna by investigating the reception of Augustine’s oeuvre in Italian humanism during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In response to the call for a more extensive and detailed investigation of the reception of Augustine’s works and thought in the Western world, numerous scholars have addressed the topic over the last decades. However, one of Augustine’s major works, De civitate Dei, has received remarkably little attention. In a series of case studies by renowned specialists of Italian humanism, this volume now analyzes the various strategies that were employed in reading and interpreting the City of God at the dawn of the modern age. Augustine and the Humanists focuses on the reception of the text in the work of sixteen early modern writers and thinkers who played a crucial role in the era between Petrarch and Poliziano. The present volume thus makes a significant and innovative contribution both to Augustinian studies and to our knowledge of early modern intellectual history.


2020 ◽  
Vol 170 ◽  
pp. 06019
Author(s):  
Rukhsana Badar ◽  
Sarika Bahadure

The global cities of the world are witnessing a visible disconnection of everyday life. In India the Smart City guidelines acknowledge the need to counter the growing social detachment and intolerance by encouraging interactions. They go further in identifying that preserving and creating of open spaces must be a key feature of comprehensive urban development. Most social relations are cemented within open spaces at the neighbourhood level. Previous studies examine the association between the attributes of neighbourhood open spaces and social activity but neglect to view the issue comprehensively. The present study turns to Lefebvre’s Unitary Theory which states that open space is a result of three forces; 1) perceived space which is the physical dimension and material quality identifiable by the senses; 2) conceived space created by planners and other agents as plans and documents; and 3) lived space which is shaped by the values attached and images generated through user experience. For open space conducive to social interactions these three aspects must work in tandem. With this consideration a framework of criteria and indicators is developed and used to measure and compare the open spaces in select neighbourhoods in Europe and India. The investigation thus reveals differences in all three aspects of neighbourhood spaces. It also reveals a discrepancy between the planning standards formulated and employed by the city authorities in providing the spaces and the actual needs of the community. The research aims to address this gap. The study of the Indian cases lays foundation for the use of the framework to measure open spaces in association with social cohesion and thereby contribute to the enhancement of the social infrastructure of the City.


2018 ◽  
Vol 193 ◽  
pp. 04002
Author(s):  
Anh Viet Vu ◽  
Thi Ai Thuy Pham ◽  
Tu Pham

The pop-up architecture (or landscape architecture) becomes popular nowadays. Some highlights include annual architecture program such as the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion at Hyde Park, London; MPavilion in Melbourne; MoMA PS1 and Heart Sculpture in New York. Many of these pop-up architectural works have been designed by world renowned architects, such as Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas, Hezorg and de Meuron, Jean Nouvel, Toyo Ito, SANAA, Shigeru Ban, BIG, etc. And many of these designs reflect innovative thinking that changes the professional world of architectural design. But above all, these pop-up architectures were created in responsive manner to the urban community and the community controversially has good response to this type of architecture. In the other words, pop-up architecture is the way the architects touch the heartbeat of the cities, make them livable for all. Ho Chi Minh City has its own types of pop-up landscape architecture, whereas this paper intends to explore in two case studies: Nguyen Hue Floral Boulevard and Nguyen Van Binh Book Street. Nguyen Hue Floral Street is celebrating now its twelfth birthday in the city. Nguyen Van Binh Book Street has just passed its first anniversary in 2017. Both cases live its own story behind the scene about how livable a city could be through place-making by architecture and landscape design. Throughout these cases, we would like to find out how this type of pop-up landscape architecture being realized and become popular in Ho Chi Minh City, and how it is devoted to a livable city for all.


Spatium ◽  
2014 ◽  
pp. 14-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
İmre Eren

Cities are trying to adapt to the rapidly changing global trends by regenerating themselves. Approaches and practices of this regeneration are different in several countries. In big Turkish cities, particularly in the past decade, urban regeneration practices, processes and consequences have sparked several debates. The ?new? gained or converted spaces in the city are also significant in terms of their impacts on urban identity. In this context, this study aims to identify the impacts of urban regeneration, which occurred in historical city centres, on urban identity in the case of Turkey. The study determines general framework of urban regeneration and then defines a conceptual framework of urban identity. It focuses on urban regeneration projects in the case of Turkey. Then, the topic is explored through two case studies which are selected from Turkey, Istanbul and Bursa. The findings of the study indicate that there are several problematic aspects of urban regeneration. The findings also show that urban identity was ignored in urban regeneration projects, which caused significant breaks in the context of physical, cultural, historical and semantic continuity.


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