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(Non)Sharing Economies

mwenda

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

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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Zackery.White

The article’s argument is supported through statistical analysis of health care services available to citizens and personal anecdotes of physicians and other health care workers that were affected by radiation while providing care. Like much of history, looking at the effects of Chernobyl on government and education formation, can provide many ideas on how to improve the system, and create more options if it has to happen again. 

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Sara.Till

Attawapiskat First Nation: an isolated first nation located in the Kenora district of Norther Ontario along the James Bay. It is a highly remote reserve, with limited access to outside individuals

Caroline Tait: a professor of Psychiatry at University of Saskatchewan Medical School, who is utilized as a resource in this article. 

Premier Peter Taptuna: Canadian politician currently serving as the premier of Nunavut, the largest territory in Northern Canada. Since his tenure began in 2013, Taptuna has specifically focused on education and training within the territories in order to gain long-term economic and social stability.

Aboriginal Healing Foundation:  a non-profit organization focusing on building strong cultural ties and enabling community progress through rectifying social wrongs. This includes supporting youth and families in social well-being, training leadership and communities to respond to trauma, and sharing aboriginal stories with outside communities. This organization is cited several times as greatly progressing aboriginal communities while preserving culture, identity, and relationships with outside peoples. It is also cited as having a significant portion of its Federal funding cut, despite overwhelming positive results from initiatives and projects.

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Sara.Till

Miriam Ticktin, PhD, is a current associate professor of Anthropology and a co-director of Zolberg Institute of Migration and Mobility. She received degrees from both Stanford University, Oxford University, and Ecoles de Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. Her work typically focuses on the intersection of medicine, science, law, anthropology, and postcolonial feminist theory. She has multiple publications on the above subjects, including journal articles, books, special journal issues, and chapters. 

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Sara.Till

Peter D. Kramer is an American psychiatrist. Currently a faculty member of Brown Medical School, Dr. Kramer conducted most of the research included through patient interaction. As an opinion piece, the article does not carry a significant amount of hard, factual data. However, it should be noted that some factual information comes through published resources, such as current medical protocols held by the American Medical Association.