Paper short abstract:

This article explores the negotiations surrounding Venice as a contested, iconic, inhabited space, both through narratives and citizen protests, in the context of touristification. It offers a closer look at the challenges of how Venice is cared for (Tronto, 2013)1, and the ways the city is inhabited in relation to the phenomenon of overtourism.

Paper long abstract:

The article examines the question of how Venetians are reclaiming their right to the island city as a common good for its inhabitants, relating this directly to how the city is cared for. It discusses the phenomena that come with the reshaping of the spaces and everyday lives of Venetian residents due to mass tourism. Overtourism has transformed Venice into a Disneyfied city in several ways, for example through short-term tourists and their perception and use of the city as a fun park. There is little perception of Venice as a lived-in space which is inhabited by families, elderly people and students going about their everyday lives in a city with only 52,000 inhabitants and a staggering 24 million visitors every year. The different ways the city is inhabited are discussed, and the consequences thereof, based on ethnographic research containing field research in the form of qualitative interviews, participatory observations, analysis of social media activities on Facebook, analysis of secondary data and debates in the media.

In recent years, the island city has been facing two major challenges. On the one hand, due to the impact of climate change, solutions must be found for problems caused by rising sea levels. On the other hand, the city is in danger of sinking in the wake of mass tourism (Settis, 2016). It is not only Venice that is facing these challenges, touristification and commodification of housing are virulent contemporary phenomena which many cities are currently confronting (Russo and Scarnato, 2018; Russo, 2002; Van der Borg, 1996). However, Venice, as an island-based heritage city, is being markedly reshaped by mass tourism in the form of day tourists from cruise ships, bus tourism and those who enter the city from the surrounding region (Casagrande, 2016; Bertocchi and Visentin, 2019).

Paper short abstract:

This paper ethnographically investigates digital, knowledge infrastructures as forms of scientific sociality that are committed in generating new analytics and knowledge sharing processes for the government of human and non-human health.

Paper long abstract:

The paper draws from the author’s experience as an ethnographer in a multidisciplinary research infrastructure set up online in the early phase of the SarsCov2 outbreak. The primary purpose of this scientific collective is to operationalize, through data sharing, the “One Health” (OH) paradigm in the study and management of health risks at the human-animal-ecosystem interface.

OH has been described as the collaborative effort of multiple health professionals and their related disciplines and branches of science to effectively anticipate and respond to health disasters, such as the COVID 19 pandemic. In seeking to implement a systemic approach to health that entangles humans, ecosystems and other life forms, OH promotes a view of science that is accessible, data-driven, reusable, horizontal and cooperative, capable of bringing up a “visionary, pragmatic lifeworld” in which narrow-focused, anthropocentric views of health make way for more equitable and holistic approaches to health inequalities and risks.

The paper aims to discuss knowledge infrastructures for OH application as forms of scientific sociality that aggregate humans, computers, algorithms, health data, and non-human life forms. Using this ethnographic experience as an illustration, it asks what practices amplify best this particular kind of scientific sociality? What views of health and dimensions of knowledge are preferred or restricted? What are the forms of human responsibility fostered? Using the concept of “infrastructural reconciliation” (Barua 2021), the paper reflects on the possibilities of knowledge infrastructures to act as ethical sites for a more comprehensive and equitable reformulation of human responsibility and more-than-human, scientific sociality.

Paper short abstract:

Through the advocacy work of two nightlife campaigns on the island of Ireland, I discuss how COVID-19 has ignited new opportunities for transformation for the future of nightlife in Belfast and Dublin by combating socio-economic and environmental issues in the night time economy and culture.

Paper long abstract:

Scholars have argued that much of our understanding of cities, their urbanism and urban development is based on perspectives from the daytime. However, in contemporary society, it is impossible to understand cities and urbanism without understanding cities at night (Florida, 2016; Kelly, 2016). In a unique sense, the night is a feature of every single city in the world meaning that some form of it is universal (Straw, 2018). Creating safe, vibrant and progressive night-time environments can be challenging; however, over recent decades authorities, practitioners, academics, and public and private sector organisations have recognised the importance of collaborations and partnerships to enhance nightlife landscapes (Avetisyan, 2020; Acuto et al., 2022). Indeed, the night has become an important topic of conversation since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. While nightlife spaces, such as nightclubs and other late-night entertainment spaces, were first to close and last to open to curb the spread of the virus, COVID-19 has ignited new opportunities for transformation for the future of nightlife on a local and global scale. In this paper, I discuss this duality in more depth, using the cities of Belfast and Dublin as case studies. I also draw on the work of two sibling nightlife campaigns on the island of Ireland, Free The Night (Northern Ireland) and Give Us The Night (Ireland), to showcase how the pandemic has further enhanced hope through advocacy work to combat broader socioeconomic and environmental issues surrounding the night-time economy and culture on the island of Ireland.

Paper short abstract:

Public toilets are the pariah of urban infrastructures due to their liminal character and their association with the excretory functions of our bodies. It is, thus, no surprise that their design is not updated in decades, impacting the life of their users, especially women, who learn to make do.

Paper long abstract:

More than two billion people do not have access to basic modern sanitary infrastructures and, women, in particular, are affected by these infrastructural vulnerabilities. Women living in more affluent urban contexts also have poor access to sanitary infrastructures due to lack of female public toilets. These toilets are often poorly maintained, and their design does not suit women’s daily needs. This paper relies on a mixed-methods approach that combines the analysis of documents and secondary sources with the usage of ethnographic methodologies. My goal is to understand not only how public toilets in Portugal are designed and maintained, but also to make sense of how women perceive public toilets in urban settings and whether these toilets are designed to fit the needs of the population they are supposed to serve. The embarrassment to openly discuss what we (women) do in the bathroom and how we (women) relate to it make this subject hard to openly discuss and, for this reason, the hope of a possible advancement is limited. That is why motivating an open discussion about this subject is of the upmost importance. I intend to show how the matter of public toilet adaptability to females is a neglected subject in Portugal, how we fit in the international paradigm and what we can do to change this. My ultimate goal is to provoke debate on the question of how public toilets are being maintained, how they operate and, mainly, how their mode of operation is shaped by larger social anxieties.

Paper short abstract:

The overarching aim is to advance the development of a spatial and social perspective on loneliness and social isolation by developing a better understanding of how neighbourhood features can contribute to reducing the prevalence of loneliness and social isolation in the community setting.

Paper long abstract:

There is an increasing body of research on loneliness and social isolation (L&SI), especially during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Previously it has been shown that loneliness is real and a universal experience that varies across demographic characteristics, countries and the life-span. However, the discourse on L&SI is largely one-sided and frames L&SI as a psychological, individual and medical problem. I propose a complementary geographic and social perspective to the prevailing psychological and health approach, as certain social phenomena cannot be understood exclusively on the individual level. Thereby the spatial sociological concept of the third place which refers to informal public gathering places (Oldenburg 1996) will help to conceptualise existing neighbourhood inventories such as parks, cafés, libraries. These third places promote social justice by equalising the status of guests, creating habits of public of public togetherness, and thus can provide psychological support for individuals and communities (Oldenburg 1989). They also help individuals build social relationships and enable interactions with weak social ties, which improves well-being. Additionally, we also know that people of similar socio-economic status tend to cluster in similar areas, which can be quite pronounced. This illustrates the need to further the development of a spatial and social view on L&SI, as these approaches are highly understudied.

Paper short abstract:

The DIY boom during the pandemic could be thought of as a time killer against boredom. But rather, the hands-on activities served as personal strategies to cope with the global uncertainty. The perceived uncertainty was countered by making things tangible, in order to stabilise-it-yourself.

Paper long abstract:

During the pandemic, a real boom in DIY activities could be observed. Those were activities such as baking sourdough bread, growing kombucha, repairing broken devices, planting balconies or knitting. They were very present on social media, but also visible through empty shelves in hardware stores. The DIY boom could be thought of as a time killer against boredom at home. But rather, the hands-on activities uncovered a much more fundamental desire. They served as strategies to cope with the perceived uncertainty that arose from the pandemic. Through DIY activities, the uncertainty was countered by making things tangible, in order to stabilise-it-yourself. The pandemic experience reflects in short, what I was able to observe during my long term empirical research on maker communities, that is part of my PhD project.

Coping with crises and thus the question of eco-social sustainability, is one of the fundamental and driving forces of maker communities, which have increasingly been founded in rural areas in Germany since the 2010s. They criticise the growth-oriented mindset of highly industrialised countries. Therefore, the maker communities are developing innovative and creative models for housing, working, and living together alternatively. However, the visionary concepts and toolboxes appear as well-intentioned "ready-made-futures". As such, they offer prefabricated solutions to cope with crises, but limit the idea of "changing the world" again to the limits of capitalist reproduction (cf. Daily 2017).