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(Non)Sharing Economies

mwenda
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I am interested in the Macro scale and the macro effects evident at a city-scale level. I remember visiting New Orleans in 2016 and vividly remember seeing several signs with a large 'No' symbol drawn and the text  "neighbors not tourists" printed on the sign. Recently, as part of my research into New Orleans, I stumbled on this piece by the Guardian on how short-term rentals through platforms such as Airbnb are leading to gentrification in New Orleans. Highlighted in the article is how several Airbnb hosts do not reside on the listed premises. I remember the place we stayed, as we were a large party, having a 617 prefix number.  The prefix stood out as I knew the code 617 represented Boston and was curious what someone with ties to Boston doing in New Orleans as a host. In a similar vein, the article also highlights the problem of absentee hosts, hosts who acquire property for the sole purpose of setting up the property as an Airbnb site.

To tackle the problem, one councilwoman passed a law that required any Airbnb hosts in residential zones to have a homestead exemption verifying they live on site. In this case, a city-wide measure was taken and passed into law affecting the micro. It is common to have one host having several properties in different residential areas in New Orleans. From a technical standpoint, it could be viewed that Airbnb as technology is developed and presented as a scalable product. With no limits to reproducibility. Meanwhile, real-life discontinuities exist in the form of such homestead laws. It is impossible to live in more than one homestead at the same time. In other words, the concept of the human is not scalable.
Likewise, neither is cultural heritage. The city of New Orleans positions its self as a city with great cultural heritage. It is through this heritage that they seek to draw more and more tourists. How do cities think of scaling up successful initiatives and how do they navigate the political, social, ecological, or economic entanglements. At what point is downscaling necessary? Is culture scalable?

[1]https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/13/new-orleans-airbnb-trem…

QUOTIDIAN ANTHROPOCENES: NEW ORLEANS

mwenda
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I am currently a Ph.D. student interested in exploring the entanglements of scale, especially in the context of environmental sensing.  My primary research seeks to engage in discourse around the value of scalability that is presented as inherent in computation. While the term scale-up is almost synonymous with computation, sustainability; on the other hand, is known as a problem of scale. Take for example, the discourse on climate change where the actions required to combat climate change requires interventions at different scales. In this context, demanding changes at individual scales while no corresponding changes happen at larger scales would not yield much.

In looking at New Orleans, I came across a video on IoT cameras developed by Cisco, the networking giant. What struck me other than the apparent rise of surveillance capitalism was the narrative of one of the police officers highlighted in the video. The officer mentions that it is not feasible for the city to place police officers on every corner. In the context of scale, the police officer is implying that cameras are useful as they extend the police officer's ability to surveil the city. In other words, cameras and the networks help scale up the police officer, making it possible for them to cover a larger scale than before.

One of the police officers, in the video, also mentions that New Orleans is a tourist and hospitable town. Which brings up the question at any given period, what scale of visitors can New Orleans support without stretching the city's resources? Several other cities in the world have made efforts to limit visitors, in order not stretch city resources. The recent crisis at Mount Everest is an excellent example of what happens when resources are stretched to accommodate the increasing number of local visitors. How could something of this nature similarly impact New Orleans?

At the communication center where the video feed is analyzed, the IT manager provides reasons as to why they chose Cisco as their vendor. One of the reasons he gives was that the system is easily expandable, allowing the ability to scale out/up the network.

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Sara_Nesheiwat
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There are many facts, statistics and data provided by the MSF collection of essays. Along with data provided by these essays and other organizations such as WHO and other cited works, expert analysis is also used as a common method throughout this article to support the arguments.

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Sara_Nesheiwat
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This film appeals to the viewers from an emotional aspect. The documentary follows a family and is told from the father's perspective, a student from Wisconsin. It shows a first person experience of what it was like to deal with this situation and the climate and magnitude of the situation in Liberia. The documentary isn't scientific or statistics heavy. Rather it has testimony from natives of the area and footage of bodies and the lack of hospital effectiveness and government protocol. The stories and narratives from locals is what really captures the attention of viewers and accurately portrays the hardships faced. There were a few parts at the end where numbers of those infected were mentioned, yet the the narrator's account of what occurred as well as other local's stories is what really drives home the point of anguish and despair seen during those hard times in Africa. 

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Sara_Nesheiwat
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"Although violence directly affecting health service delivery in complex security environments has received a great deal of media attention, there is very little publically available research, particu- larly peer-reviewed, original research."  

"Overall, it is important to understand the perspectives of per- petrators in order to find solutions that enable effective delivery of health services "

"Key challenges in addressing violence affecting health service delivery in complex security environments include a lack of health- specific, accessible and comparable, gender-disaggregated data and sufficient data on perpetrator motives. "

"According to workshop participants, in some cases the lack of gender-disaggregated data may be partly due to attempts to protect the confidentiality of victims. "

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Sara_Nesheiwat

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Sara_Nesheiwat
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As mentioned, this site offers data on long term health afflictions of those exposed to 9/11. Yet the site also offers information about the participants in the registry. How they were selected, how many people are entered in the registry and where their exact locations were during the attacks. On top of providing data on the participants, the site also offers information on funding, as well as access to annual reports addressing the health impacts of 9/11. The site also gives access to those that the registry works with and collaborates with. The history behind the registry and the attacks are also provided. Sources for all data and a full bibliography is also available along with information about legal aspects of the health and compensation act, enrollee's confidentiality and thousands of other resources. 

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Sara_Nesheiwat
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I researched the current law and statues on immigration and health care/illness in other countries aside from France. I wanted to be able to understand how France's policies compared to our own, as well as America's policies versus other countries. I also researched the immigration protocols in France, both going and coming. Along with this, I also wanted to learn more about their current healthcare system, what they can offer, how advanced they are and compare it to America, to help put it into context. I also wanted to research how their health system works, as well as any protocols they follow in terms of public health. 

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Sara_Nesheiwat
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The main focus of this article was on chronic disaster syndrome, or the psychological and physiological effects generated by the disruptions caused by a disaster, or specifically in this article, Hurricane Katrina. The effects of long term stress related to loss of family, shelter, community and jobs are analyzed. In this article individual suffering based off chronic trauma and long term displacement, disaster capitalism tied to social welfare and the ways the displacement function within the disaster capitalism are discussed in this article.