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尋找一個叫做家的地方

janey7875

我訪問到的阿嬤也有在高度人力密集的產業中工作過,如餐飲、紡織等等,反映了當代大環境中原民來到都市的處境。都市原民作為台灣產業發展的推手之一,卻無法擁有安身立命的家,而被迫在各處流浪,直到近代才開啟了與政府溝通的橋樑,卻依然有種種難題需要克服。

Fieldnote Apr 17 2023 - 9:41am

這次主要聊的是阿嬤們的遷移旅程,我們主要訪問到的是一對姊妹,年齡相差兩歲,在小學的時候因為有仲介介紹,一同來到台北工作。

以下是他們的遷移過程:
台東-花蓮-台北(有仲介介紹台北的工作,但很多人受騙被賣到妓院)-桃園-台北-新竹
小學因經濟因素離開台東,搭巴士到花蓮,再搭火車到台北(大概民國57年)

Fieldnote Feb 21 2023 - 11:01pm

當你在搜尋器上打出那魯灣 新竹,會看到標題幾乎都是『全新開放絕美地景遊戲場!「那魯灣文化聚落」玩超快溜滑梯 』等等的文章,當你真正進去這個所謂『文化聚落』後,會發現原來這只是當權者的一種企圖,那魯灣所面臨的困境並非藉由地景遊戲場可以解決,但我發現這是一種政府慣用手法,將完全脫離脈絡的建築蓋在想要宣傳的地點上,當天進入社區後所看到的是兩種截然不同的景色,一方面可以理解政府為什麼需要對當地做重劃

Fieldnote Apr 11 2023 - 9:43am

This was our first time interviewing members of our tribal family, and we had the pleasure of interviewing three grandmothers.

COVID-19 Rapid Student Interview Project

COVID-19 Rapid Student Interview Collection Form

This project aims to provide an engaging project for post-secondary students (undergraduate and graduate) to gain experience with qualitative research methodology  while contributing to public

(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.