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Many digital platforms offer services that affect real-world socio-economic processes. One example is the impact of short-term rental platforms such as Airbnb or Wimdu on cities and neighborhoods. Because these platforms often operate in a regulatory void characterized by absent, unclear, or poorly enforced laws and regulations, local governments in affected cities have begun experimenting with a variety of instruments to regulate the operations of short-term rental platforms. In this paper, we report how such locally implemented regulatory responses have affected Airbnb's operations across 13 European cities over the period from 2015 to 2019. Using a difference-in-difference specification with synthetic controls, we assess the impact of different regulatory responses by disaggregating them into motivations, actions, targets, and outcomes. We find that the effectiveness of regulatory responses differs by type of regulation (restricting or clarifying), type of host (professional or private), as well as the enforcement (with or without the cooperation of the platform operator). Through this work, we add to the ongoing debate on the regulation of digital platforms by presenting both empirical evidence as well as an analytical framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revisits the ongoing discussion on the concept of industrial relatedness by applying it to manufacturing industries in urban areas. The analysis uses a sample of firms operating in the Brussels Capital Region area and observed over the period 2009–2015. Based on a two-step quantile regression, results show that industrial relatedness is the agglomeration force that mostly sustains the performance of urban manufacturing, whereas this is not the case for other types of agglomeration externalities. Moreover, among the measures of industrial relatedness, the input–output relationship matters more than product similarity in the perspective of a relocation of manufacturing firms in urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population growth in urban cities has created transport problems such as traffic congestion, pollution, accidents, and infrastructure failures. These problems often lead to disruption of mobility, especially in emerging economies. The goal of any city is to have a resilient transport system that is free from frequent and severe disruptions. Resilience can be incorporated into smart mobility systems to create a robust, integrated and intelligent transport system. Therefore, this study sought to determine resilience factors required for a resilient smart mobility system in emerging economies. The study used interpretive structural modelling (ISM) to establish the causal interrelationships among the factors drawing from data from experts in smart cities, city transport and academia. It was found that the most critical factor to drive resilience is foresight – the ability to anticipate disruptions. Three other resilience factor categories identified were dynamism, certainty and optimisation, which all point to the importance of building dynamic capabilities. The key implication for practice highlights the role that human and artificial intelligence can play in anticipating natural, social and infrastructure disruptions. ISM offered a mechanism to determine the critical causal resilience factors to be prioritised amongst the competing demands on the limited resources of emerging economies. Apart from foresight, which was found to be a driving factor, the other resilience factors are equally strong linkage factors (influence each other), thus further revealing the complexities that decision-makers in urban cities of emerging economies constantly face. A research agenda for resilience in smart mobility in emerging economies was developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most minimum wage studies are identified on small, plentiful, mostly expected wage changes, spread out over time. A recent set of changes have instead been large, rapid, and unexpected, following the "Fight for $15" movement. Alberta is the first North American province, state, or territory to have this $15 minimum wage, with an unexpectedly large increase (47%) occurring over a short time horizon (3 years). The employment effects of this policy are estimated using a synthetic control approach on Labour Force Survey data. Similar to the existing literature, workers moved up the wage distribution, increment by increment, but with a higher distributional reach. Employment losses occurred at similar elasticities, but with large level changes, mostly among younger workers. Newer to the literature, regional employment losses were found in four of the five non-urban economic regions, but not in Alberta's two main cities, showing the significance and nuance of regional heterogeneity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we understand cities today as commodified spaces which must struggle at the intersection of cultural, ideological and historical tensions. In order to explore and problematise a contested city brand's marketing effort, we engage in multiple rounds of in-situ introspective reflections about a racialised city's place branding material. Based on the two authors' separate analyses of the same marketing material deriving from two separate theoretical starting points, we engage in agonistic conversation about how visible and invisible racialised tensions are represented. We highlight how absences and (in)visibilities can be predominantly understood as either colour-blindness or ideological fantasy. We find, despite our contrasting theoretical orientations, that a city brand is inevitably fractured and ruptured into 'a' non-identity or – to paraphrase Deleuze and Guattari – an empty body. We argue how achieving inclusive branding becomes an oxymoron as narratives surrounding a city are themselves more or less diverse, contested and polarised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global knowledge flows are not only important in promoting economic activities but also in addressing global environmental issues. In order to examine the mechanisms of how firms in emerging economies can learn from global partners in finding solutions to environmental challenges, we explore a rich data set covering nearly 190,595 Chinese firms and analyze the knowledge flows that local firms received from foreign firms in developing eco-innovations. We examine both knowledge flows in the same industry and those in the up- and down-stream industries, and, in particular, provide a nuanced consideration around the under-explored industrial conditions and regional institutions of technology spillovers and domestic eco-innovation. We find clear evidence that foreign green technology spillovers have a positive impact on the eco-innovation of domestic firms in China. This superior performance is particularly pronounced in certain industries (e.g., technology-intensive, pollution-intensive, and highly competitive) and cities with higher levels of environmental regulation stringency. Our results show that domestic firms differ significantly in the extent to which they benefit from global knowledge flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrialisation and urbanisation in the world and Iran have led to high levels of heavy metal contamination in water resources. The health risk of exposure to heavy metals via drinking water in two western cities of Mazandaran province, Iran was assessed. The concentrations of arsenic (As), chromium (Cr), and lead (Pb) in 60 water samples collected from groundwater resources of the cities of Noshahr and Ramsar were determined using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic health risks assessment for adults, teenagers, and children were estimated in terms of hazard quotient (HQ) and lifetime cancer risk (LTCR), 'respectively'. The average concentrations of As, Cr, and Pb in drinking water were 'respectively' 1.9, 21.6, and 1.8 µg/L in Noshahr and 1.2, 15.6, and 1 µg/L in Ramsar. These results showed that the concentration of metals in the studied areas were within standard ranges. The average HQs caused by exposure to Cr (0.229–0.383), As (0.200–0.333) and Pb (.016–.027) in Noshahr were lower than one. Also, the average HQ calculated due to exposure to Cr (0.151–0.253), As (0.132–0.219), and Pb (0.009–0.015) in Ramsar were within safe range. The non-carcinogenic risk of the heavy metals in Noshahr and Ramsar was in the following order: Cr > As > Pb. Based on the LTCR values, the carcinogenic risk of Cr in drinking water in the cities was higher than that of As. The LTCR values of As and Cr in drinking water for all the age groups in the cities were higher than the acceptable limit (10−5) recommended by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. The results can be helpful for health policy makers to prioritise interventions in the environmental health action plan and for people in taking protective measures such as using home water treatment devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate the impacts of air pollution on overall outdoor activities in China. To address the shortcomings of previous studies, which mainly focused on specific outdoor activities, we provide new evidence of people's avoidance behaviours on polluted days by using road traffic flow as a proxy for overall outdoor activities. Based on a novel daily road traffic flow data covering four major cities in China in 2018, we find that an increase of 100 points in air quality index (AQI) lead to a reduction in road traffic flow by approximately 0.9%. To overcome potential issues of endogeneity problems, we introduce an instrumental variable based on the AQI of surrounding cities weighted by distance and wind direction. A variety of robustness checks validate the causal interpretation of our findings, and further analysis provides richer characterizations of people's self-protective avoidance behavioural response to air pollution. Our findings are highly valuable for policy-making and provide practical implications to public transport operators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the data at the prefecture-level city from 1999 to 2019, we study the impact of officials with mismatched higher administrative rank on regional economic development. The study found that the high-level configuration of officials can significantly promote regional economic development. On average, the concurrent appointment of a provincial standing committee member as the municipal party secretary at the prefecture-level city can increase the GDP of the municipality by 9.1%. The mechanism analysis shows that increased transfer payment from up-level government and increased investment in regional fixed asset are the main reasons for the economic growth. Further analysis reveals that the economic growth effect of high-level configuration of officials is heterogeneous in terms of promotion pressure and the development stage of prefecture-level cities, the higher the promotion pressure of officials and the lower the per capita development level of prefecture-level cities, the greater the role of officials with mismatched higher administrative rank in promoting economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transport accessibility is an essential element in the planning of transport policies and plays a crucial role in territorial cohesion, but the role of transport accessibility for urban–rural integration has been rarely studied. This article explores the relationship between transport accessibility and urban–rural income gaps through the spatial error model, using the weighted average travel time (WATT) indicator and the Theil index of urban–rural income. The results show that transport accessibility has a U-shaped influence on the urban–rural income gaps within cities of China. As transport accessibility gradually improves, the urban–rural income gaps within cities tend to first narrow and then widen. Meanwhile, their relationship can show heterogeneity across regions, with improving transport accessibility and narrowing the urban–rural income gaps in the eastern and western cities, respectively. Such a result suggests that it is essential to reinforce transport links between western cities and other cities with high economic potential, which could improve transport accessibility and further narrow the urban–rural income gaps of western cities. For transport planning, policymakers should consider transport accessibility and its socio-economic impact on urban–rural integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research sought to examine whether study interest and mentoring ability have a significant impact on students' mathematical fluency. The study focused on selected private junior high schools in the municipalities of Monkayo, Montevista, and Compostela, where the respondents were drawn from. The statistical methods employed in this study included Mean, Pearson-r, and Regression Analysis. The research utilized a quantitative non-experimental design, specifically a correlation technique combined with regression analysis. Results revealed that the level of study interest in terms of feelings, value and involvement was high with an overall mean of 3.592 and has an SD of 0.66 reflected a descriptive rating of high. Furthermore, the mentoring ability was rated as high across several areas, including inspiring, managing risks, encouraging, providing corrective feedback, identifying goals and current reality, building trust, instructing/developing capabilities, opening doors, and listening actively which has an overall mean of 4.005 and has an SD of 0.584 indicating a descriptive rating of high. Additionally, the students displayed high levels of mathematical fluency in a variety of categories, including conceptual understanding, strategic competence, procedural fluency, productive disposition, and adaptive reasoning reflected to have an overall mean of 3.935, has an SD of 0.611. Additionally, the findings showed a significant and positive correlation between study interest and students' mathematical fluency which has an R-value of 0.699* and p-value of <.001. Lastly, findings revealed a significant and positive correlation between mentoring ability and students' mathematical fluency which has an R-value of 0.688* and p-value of <.001. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the impact of smart city on technological innovation and the underlying mechanism. Based on county-level panel data in China from 2005 to 2020, we use the 'smart city' construction as a quasi-natural experiment to identify its impact on technological innovation. Our findings show that: (1) Smart city construction significantly promotes technological innovation. (2) Smart cities indirectly promote technological innovation through technology resource allocation, industry agglomeration effects, and entrepreneurial spirit. (3) Due to 'digital divide', the innovation effects of smart cities are more pronounced in eastern regions and cities with high levels of digital infrastructure and information technology talent endowment. (4) The 'smart city' pilots generate spatial spillover effects, which enhance the technological innovation level of neighbouring cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digital revolution, fuelled by advancements in social media, Big Data, the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence, is reshaping our urban landscapes into 'participatory cities'. These cities leverage digital technologies to foster citizen engagement, collaborative decision-making and community-driven urban development, thus unlocking new potentials while confronting emerging threats. Such technologies are empowering individuals and organizations in ways that were unimaginable just a few years ago. They do, however, introduce new risks and vulnerabilities that must be carefully managed. Hence, socio-technical innovation is urgently needed. In this connection, open-source technologies, participatory approaches and new forms of governance are becoming more popular and relevant. This theme issue looks into the tangible impacts of these technological advancements, with a focus on participatory cities. It aims to explain how digital tools are used in cities to tackle urban challenges, improve governance and promote sustainability. Through a collection of in-depth analyses, case studies and real-world examples, this issue seeks to offer a comprehensive understanding of the digital governance frameworks underpinning participatory cities. By offering a platform for multidisciplinary discourse, this theme issue endeavours to contribute to the broader narrative of shaping a more resilient, sustainable and democratic urban future in the digital age. This article is part of the theme issue 'Co-creating the future: participatory cities and digital governance'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the perspectives of different urban actors regarding public participation in the context of the increasing incorporation of digital technologies and urban platforms. The study is based on three workshops with local governance actors, six semi-structured interviews with academics in the fields of public participation and digital technologies and a citizen survey with 260 respondents. The results provide multi-perspective insights into the challenges of participatory processes and are synthesized into three contributions: (i) guidelines for effective public participation, including factors that encourage or discourage citizen engagement; (ii) guidelines for designing participatory platforms, highlighting specific features that promote digital engagement (i.e. social media, gamification and user-friendly interfaces), and (iii) a typology of digital participation platforms to connect the diverse needs of actor groups with the various possibilities provided by new technologies. The guidelines provide concrete recommendations to support both urban practitioners and interface designers in designing participatory strategies and platforms, respectively. Recognizing that there is no-one-size-fits-all platform, the typology provides a framework for the assessment and further development of digital platforms for public participation. This article is part of the theme issue 'Co-creating the future: participatory cities and digital governance'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently the transportation sector has witnessed several new technologically driven disruptions that have amplified the complexity of city planning and policymaking. Traditional well-established processes of decision-making in urban planning and transportation are proving insufficient to deal with this degree of complexity and uncertainty. This paper proposes an alternative approach, combining qualitative and normative urban design, with quantitative and predictive transport modelling. This requires urban designers and transport modellers to co-create goal-driven and agile transport models that act as a heuristic tool to guide planning decisions in early design stages. Heuristic modelling is informed by design optioning and vice versa in an iterative loop. A case study is presented to demonstrate how this approach is operationalized to study the impacts of automated vehicles on urban planning. Design workshops are used as a method to elicit responses from stakeholders, which are used to co-create the simulation models. This collaborative process grounds the research in real-world practice and enhances the communication of design proposals and research findings across disciplines. By integrating design thinking methods with agent-based transport simulations, this approach provides a better understanding of emergent effects in complex urban systems and improves stakeholder engagement in the planning process. This article is part of the theme issue 'Co-creating the future: participatory cities and digital governance'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we identify challenges in the complex interaction between artificial intelligence (AI) systems and society. We argue that AI systems need to be studied in their socio-political context to be able to better appreciate a diverse set of potential outcomes that emerge from long-term feedback between technological development, inequalities and collective decision-making processes. This means that assessing the risks from the deployment of any specific technology presents unique challenges. We propose that risk assessments concerning AI systems should incorporate a complex systems perspective, with adequate models that can represent short- and long-term effects and feedback, along with an emphasis on increasing public engagement and participation in the process. This article is part of the theme issue 'Co-creating the future: participatory cities and digital governance'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We focus here on methods for locating future urban development, ranging from entire towns to site designs. These methods articulate the urban design problem in terms of a series of factors pertaining to different measures of land suitability that are represented as spatial surfaces or maps. In realistic problems, these factors inevitably conflict with one another, and we thus define various design methods that enable us to select optimal locations for development based on weighting these factors in different ways. We begin with methods for resolving conflicts between the suitability maps using simple averaging with equal weights and then introduce methods for representing the interactions between the factors as a hierarchy for how these factors can be related to each other following an order for their differential weighting. We then generalize this method to ways in which a variety of individual experts can pool their knowledge of the problem to achieve a consensus solution using a process of group dynamics. The implication is that these kinds of dynamics might be used to enable effective public participation where conflicts between opinions can be resolved collectively. We are currently exploring this through methods of geodesign where networks of stakeholders, planners and designers can be brought together to solve these problems both empirically as well as formally. This article is part of the theme issue 'Co-creating the future: participatory cities and digital governance'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efforts to realize on-demand delivery drone networks present a stark example of how the technology industry seeks to dominate new markets, regardless of societal consequences. Analyzing the most advanced of these efforts—Google Wing's operations in Australia since 2017—we identify the instrumental role of narratives of technological inevitability (of tech expansion, and societal adaptation) in catalyzing new sky-based commerce. Yet the interest of this case study lies in a twist. Google Wing's rollout in Australia's capital, Canberra, initially proceeded as a textbook example of tech expansion. However, citizen engagement and public governance dramatically intervened and, we argue, disrupted the logic of technological inevitability. This article is the first to analyze these dynamics, many of which originated with Bonython Against Drones (BAD), a community action group forged from those who first lived under Google's food delivery drones. The article exposes the flawed logic of technological inevitability as the enabling force of tech expansion; characterizes the governance failures that help install corporate visions for public goods; animates the potentialities of communities living with new technologies; and identifies the sky itself, as both a public commons and a vital, living habitat, as a key future locus for participatory governance. This article is part of the theme issue 'Co-creating the future: participatory cities and digital governance'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluating sidewalk accessibility is conventionally a manual and time-consuming task that requires specialized personnel. While recent developments in Visual AI have paved the way for automating data analysis, the lack of sidewalk accessibility datasets remains a significant challenge. This study presents the design and validation of Sidewalk AI Scanner, a web app that enables quick, crowdsourced and low-cost sidewalk mapping. The app enables a participatory approach to data collection through imagery captured using smartphone cameras. Subsequently, dedicated algorithms automatically identify sidewalk features such as width, obstacles or pavement conditions. Though not a replacement for high-resolution sensing methods, this method leverages data crowdsourcing as a strategy to produce a highly scalable, city-level dataset of sidewalk accessibility, offering a novel perspective on the city's inclusivity; fostering community empowerment and participatory planning. This article is part of the theme issue 'Co-creating the future: participatory cities and digital governance'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world is undergoing a rapid process of urbanization. Currently, it is estimated that over 55% of the global population resides in urban areas, a figure projected to reach nearly 70% by 2050. This trend is accompanied by a spatial reorganization of human activities on a global scale, bringing about significant changes in mobility patterns and urban traffic management capabilities. Consequently, it is imperative to evaluate, on a broad scale, how city size influences traffic capacity. This study aims to analyse on-road traffic patterns using a diverse dataset comprising cities of varying population sizes, geographical extents and global locations. Specifically, we conduct an analysis encompassing 25 cities primarily situated in several European countries (France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom), as well as in North America (Canada) and East Asia (Japan and Taiwan). Our findings shed light on how physical aspects related to urban form influence mobility patterns, offering insights for the implementation of more effective and sustainable traffic management policies. This article is part of the theme issue 'Co-creating the future: participatory cities and digital governance'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines legitimacy in municipal budgeting decisions, focusing on input, throughput and output dimensions. Using data from four Swiss studies, we explore how citizens assess these dimensions across traditional and innovative decision-making processes and investigate the impact of different voting methods on legitimacy perceptions. Our findings reveal that in routine processes using traditional voting, legitimacy dimensions are considered collectively. Conversely, in innovative participatory budgeting, dimensions are judged separately, involving more active evaluation. Throughput legitimacy (perceived fairness) emerges as crucial in both contexts, while input and output legitimacy's importance varies by process type. The Method of Equal Shares voting system shifts focus towards procedural fairness, increases representation and is perceived as fairer than the traditional Greedy method. However, even fair processes cannot fully compensate for outcome dissatisfaction, highlighting the complex interplay of legitimacy dimensions. This research contributes to understanding legitimacy construction in municipal decision-making, offering insights into the relationship between voting methods and legitimacy perceptions. The findings have implications for policy-makers seeking to enhance the effectiveness and acceptance of budgeting processes. This article is part of the theme issue 'Co-creating the future: participatory cities and digital governance'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of 'proximity-based cities' has gained attention as a new urban organizational model. Most prominently, the 15-minute city contends that cities can function more effectively, equitably and sustainably if essential, everyday services and key amenities are within a 15-minute walk or cycle. However, focusing solely on travel time risks overlooking disparities in service quality, as the proximity paradigm tends to emphasize the mere presence of an element in a location rather than bringing up more complex questions of identity, diversity, quality, value or relationships. Transitioning to value-based cities by considering more than just proximity can enhance local identity, resilience and urban democracy. Fostering bottom–up initiatives can create a culture of local care and value, while predominantly top–down governing strategies can lead to large inequalities. Balancing these approaches can maximize resilience, health and sustainability. This equilibrium has the potential to accompany sustainable growth, by encouraging the creation of innovative urban solutions and reducing inequalities. This article is part of the theme issue 'Co-creating the future: participatory cities and digital governance'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participatory budgeting, as a paradigm for democratic innovations, engages citizens in the distribution of a public budget to projects, which they propose and vote for implementation. So far, voting algorithms have been proposed and studied in social choice literature to elect projects that are popular, while others prioritize a proportional representation of voters' preferences, for instance, the rule of equal shares. However, the anticipated impact and novelty in the broader society by the winning projects, as selected by different algorithms, remains totally under-explored, lacking both a universal theory of impact for voting and a rigorous unifying framework for impact and novelty assessments. This article tackles this grand challenge towards new axiomatic foundations for designing effective and fair voting methods. This is through new and striking insights derived from a large-scale analysis of biases over 345 real-world voting outcomes, characterized for the first time by a novel portfolio of impact and novelty metrics. We find strong causal evidence that equal shares comes with impact loss in several infrastructural projects of different cost levels that have been so far over-represented. However, it also comes with a novel, yet over-represented, impact gain in welfare, education and culture. We discuss the broader implications of these results and how impact loss can be mitigated at the stage of campaign design and project ideation. This article is part of the theme issue 'Co-creating the future: participatory cities and digital governance'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historically, urban congestion and street life quality depended on city network hierarchies, shaped by land use and street layout. Yet navigation apps have shifted focus to travel time as the key route selection factor, challenging traditional urban structures. We review the development of an innovative approach to urban traffic management that leverages real-time data for the identification and analysis of traffic bottlenecks. This approach, combined with urban planning, aims to improve traffic flow and tackle modern urban challenges. It includes real-time bottleneck detection and cost, congestion analysis and designing a decentralized traffic management system that can serve planners. Based on complex system principles, it promises dynamic traffic optimization, merging urban planning with digital advancements. The research demonstrates the potential of different applications of the proposed methodologies to predict significant congestion from early bottleneck formation, offering urban planners a powerful toolset for reasserting their role in shaping the urban experience. This article posits that a nuanced understanding of traffic dynamics, coupled with advanced traffic management technologies, can restore the influence of urban planning in the digital era, fostering more liveable, equitable and efficient urban environments. This article is part of the theme issue 'Co-creating the future: participatory cities and digital governance'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the domain of participatory research and co-creation, understanding the dynamic interplay between group cohesion and diversity is pivotal for fostering innovation. While diversity fuels the generation of novel ideas, cohesion ensures these ideas are effectively synthesized and implemented. This study aims to explore the nuanced role that facilitators play in navigating the balance between cohesion and diversity, particularly in groups characterized by pronounced faultlines. Employing agent-based modeling, the study examines how facilitators affect the cohesion-diversity nexus. The findings reveal a complex facilitator's paradox. While facilitative actions can successfully enhance group cohesion by mitigating the negative effect of faultlines, such efforts often inadvertently reduce the within-group diversity that is crucial for sparking innovative outcomes. These findings challenge the conventional view of faultlines as merely divisive and underscore the intricate role of facilitators in modulating group dynamics. This research discusses a novel framework for dynamic facilitation strategies, emphasizing the need for facilitators to skillfully balance cohesion and diversity. This framework not only enriches the theoretical understanding of group facilitation but also offers practical insights for optimizing collaborative innovation in diverse settings. This article is part of the theme issue 'Co-creating the future: participatory cities and digital governance'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technological artefacts are created in accordance with the values and worldviews of their designers. In operation, they act as a medium, facilitating and constraining human interaction with, and perception of, the world. When used on a large scale, they may lastingly affect societal ethos. If institutional structures of domination allocate the resources necessary for artefact design and development to some population groups over others, the direction and extent of such an effect may lead to increased disparity and inequity. While the direct influence of technology on opinion is well-studied, the evaluation of non-epistemic values, assumptions and presuppositions is a hurdle in the way of a deeper understanding of the large-scale effects of asymmetries in worldviews embodied by artefacts. Here, we show that artefacts have a strong potential to bias societal worldviews when they are distributed unevenly across the value spectrum. They can affect the clustering behaviour of agents with regard to worldview, both aiding and hindering intra- and inter-cluster diversity, depending on their distribution and frequency. Our findings underline the distributional sensitivity of worldview dynamics to institutional structures of domination. We highlight the importance of procedural interventions such as participatory design, which explicitly acknowledges existing asymmetries and redistributes power accordingly. This article is part of the theme issue 'Co-creating the future: participatory cities and digital governance'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, there are increasing attempts to better involve citizens in political decision processes. A successful approach in that regard has been participatory budgeting (PB), which allows citizens to propose projects and then decide how to distribute a given budget over them. Meanwhile, the literature on collective intelligence (CI) has also shown the ability of groups to solve complex problems. Thus, by combining CI and PB, it should be possible for citizens to identify problems and create their own solutions. In this article, we study this possibility by using agent-based models. Specifically, we first show that a system combining CI and PB produces solutions that strongly penalize minorities if the solution quality depends on group size. Then, we introduce an approach that can overcome this issue. Indeed, by using a common knowledge base for the storage of partial solutions, the quality of solutions of minorities can benefit from the work of the majority, thereby promoting fairness. Interestingly, this approach also benefits majorities, as the quality of their solutions is further improved by the work of the minorities, thus reaching better solutions for everyone. This stresses the potential and importance of an open innovation approach, which is committed to information sharing. This article is part of the theme issue 'Co-creating the future: participatory cities and digital governance'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The colored traveling salesman problem (CTSP) generalizes the well-known multiple traveling salesman problem by utilizing colors to describe the accessibility of cities to individual salesmen. Many centralized algorithms have been developed to solve CTSP instances. This work presents a distributed solving framework and method for CTSP for the first time. The framework consists of multiple container-based computing nodes that rely on specific cloud infrastructures to perform distributed optimization in a pipeline style. In the framework, we develop a distributed Delaunay-triangulation-based variable neighborhood search (DDVNS) algorithm for solving a CTSP case decomposed into many traveling salesman problems. DDVNS exploits a two-stage initialization to generate an initial solution for all TSPs. After that, Delaunay-triangulation-based variable neighborhood search (DVNS) is employed to find local optima. Furthermore, the obtained solutions are improved by reallocating multicolor cities and iterating the search progress, ultimately leading to a group of CTSP solutions. Finally, extensive experiments show that DDVNS outperforms the state-of-the-art centralized VNS algorithms in terms of search efficiency and solution quality. Notably, we can achieve the best solution in a superscale case with 16 salesmen and 160,000 cities within 15 minutes, breaking the best record of CTSPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the drive of China's carbon neutral target policy, informatization has become an effective means for China to coordinate economic development and achieve a low-carbon pathway. Taking China's information benefiting people pilot policy in 2014 as a quasi-natural experiment, we deploy a difference-in-differences regression to investigate how informatization affects carbon emission efficiency (CEE) in 282 cities in China. We find that information benefiting people pilot policy effectively promotes CEE. Further, for China as a whole, the information benefiting people policy will enhance CEE by promoting green technology innovation; for developed eastern regions, both green technology innovation and digital financial inclusion are well-mediated positive transmission variables. Taken together, the findings of this paper fill the academic gaps for the green effect of informatization policy and help the government to provide valuable references for effective guidance on CEE improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Philippine Statistics Authority reports a rise in the population of unwed mothers in the Philippines, increasing from 54.3% in 2018 to 57% in 2020. This growth highlights ongoing issues related to mental health, financial stability, and work-life balance among single mothers. This study aimed to explore the lived experiences of single mothers raising their children, focusing on the challenges faced by six participants from selected cities in Metro Manila. Using a phenomenological research design, data were collected through interviews and observations. The findings reveal several key themes: the challenges encountered, and coping strategies utilized, role of support systems and influence of others in the parenting process, and cultural and societal factors. These elements collectively shape the experiences of Filipino single mothers. The study underscores the importance of recognizing the difficulties faced by single mothers and advocates for targeted government and social work interventions to support them in overcoming the physiological and psychological challenges of single parenthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Expulsions of populations from ancestral land were a cornerstone of apartheid rule and urban planning. This article explores the multiple layers of expulsions of both African and Indian populations that occurred in and around Cato Manor, a large centrally located area in Durban, South Africa, throughout the twentieth century. Bloody conflicts that engulfed the area between 1949 and 1959 led to the removal of all residents in the early 1960s. Two antagonistic constructions of memories of those dramatic events – an Indian narrative of loss, an African narrative of loss and subsequent repossession – still frame public perceptions of the area. The haunting of the expulsions of the past remains a stumbling block for establishing shared urban history and memories in Durban. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban green infrastructure is critical for creating garden cities, promoting public health, environmental quality, and building resilience to climate change. While these spaces are increasingly recognised as valuable ecological and environmental assets, the state of urban green infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) cities is concerning. Rapid urbanisation, weak enforcement of development controls, and informal settlements have reduced the availability of green infrastructure, which has implications on the sustainability of African cities. This paper provides a review of the state and challenges associated with urban green infrastructure in SSA, focusing on the loss of green spaces, urban planning challenges, and the need for policy and citizen action. Drawing on extensive literature (secondary data), the paper highlights the importance of integrating greeneries into the urban fabric of SSA cities to promote resilience to climate change and enhance environmental sustainability. It argues that concrete steps are needed at all levels of society - from policymakers to citizens - to ensure that SSA cities can regain their status as garden cities and promote a healthier, and more resilient ecological landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automated methods for building function classification are essential due to restricted access to official building use data. Existing approaches utilize traditional Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques to analyze textual data representing human activities, but they struggle with the ambiguity of semantic contexts. In contrast, Large Language Models (LLMs) excel at capturing the broader context of language. This study presents a method that uses LLMs to interpret OpenStreetMap (OSM) tags, combining them with physical and spatial metrics to classify urban building functions. We employed an XGBoost model trained on 32 features from six city datasets to classify urban building functions, demonstrating varying F1 scores from 67.80% in Madrid to 91.59% in Liberec. Integrating LLM embeddings enhanced the model's performance by an average of 12.5% across all cities compared to models using only physical and spatial metrics. Moreover, integrating LLM embeddings improved the model's performance by 6.2% over models that incorporate OSM tags as one-hot encodings, and when predicting based solely on OSM tags, the LLM approach outperforms traditional NLP methods in 5 out of 6 cities. These results suggest that deep contextual understanding, as captured by LLM embeddings more effectively than traditional NLP approaches, is beneficial for classification. Finally, a Pearson correlation coefficient of approximately -0.858 between population density and F1-scores suggests that denser areas present greater classification challenges. Moving forward, we recommend investigation into discrepancies in model performance across and within cities, aiming to identify generalized models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political practice and academic discourse similarly assume that the local level has the potential to strengthen political cohesion in the European Union: it is the tier closest to citizens and implements a large share of European legislation. But what political cohesion actually is and how it can be achieved is less clear. The paper addresses this gap by analysing the local framing of political cohesion in Europe. Drawing on case studies in eight German cities, local Europe-related networks are investigated, focusing on how their ideas about their role in crafting political cohesion links to their Europe-related activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 'strong mayor' local government systems, the institutional rules often allow for the formation of divided government. When the local government is divided, i.e. mayor is not supported by the majority in the council, the dominance of the mayor in horizontal power relations may be undermined. This paper studies local budgetary resolutions and annual discharge resolutions in Poland, where the electoral system affects the formation of divided government. The analyses presents that: the budget is adopted later and the discharge resolution is more often not adopted in the first vote in municipalities with divided government than in those with unified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-speed rail (HSR) has completely revolutionized intercity travel, significantly impacting economic activities. Recent studies have increasingly focused on how HSR affects environmental pollution. Given China's extensive HSR policy in recent years, we extend this discussion in the context of China, introducing several new dimensions. Firstly, by manually collecting the daily operating routes of each HSR line in China, we construct a dynamic, directed, and weighted HSR network and provide a detailed description of the topological evolution of Chinese HSR from 2007 to 2014. Secondly, by employing network theory algorithms, we develop a city-level HSR strength index. This approach diverges from the commonly used multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) specification, allowing us to better address heterogeneity and discontinuity issues in identifying HSR effects. Thirdly, by leveraging the specific structure of the HSR network, we analyze how cities are interconnected and, for the first time, discuss the impact of " HSR -catalyzed supervision pressure" on firms' pollution performance. Our findings show that firms exposed to higher HSR service intensity are more likely to reduce their SO 2 emissions, a result that remains robust across various checks and other pollutants. We propose an intercity interaction story, predicting that HSR facilitates spillovers among city groups, thereby increasing environmental supervision pressure from neighboring cities in the HSR network. In further empirical analysis, we identify three specific sources of supervision pressure: peer pressure, vertical pressure, and public pressure. • HSR intensity reduces SO 2 emissions. • Emission reduction effect comes from HSR-catalyzed supervision pressure. • Supervision pressures include peer pressure, vertical pressure, public pressure. • HSR strength index constructed based on Chinese dynamic, directed and weighted HSR network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breaking through local knowledge search limitations is essential for fostering interdisciplinary innovation. This paper investigates how High-speed Railway (HSR) facilitates these firms in integrating information technology (IT) knowledge from other cities into their innovation processes. By connecting cities through faster transportation, HSR diminishes the constraints of geographical proximity, enabling firms to bypass the traditional reliance on local knowledge clusters and access a broader pool of IT expertise. Utilizing a difference-in-differences (DID) approach, our results reveal that HSR enhances knowledge search scope by improving access to IT resources, increasing human capital mobility, and raising competitive awareness. Additionally, we identify heterogeneity in this effect based on factors such as the marketization level of a firm's location, the degree of digital infrastructure development, whether a firm is located in a provincial capital, and the specific industry sector. Our findings further demonstrate that the expansion of knowledge search scope due to HSR significantly boosts future firm performance. These findings highlight the critical role of transportation infrastructure, exemplified by HSR, in breaking down geographic barriers to interdisciplinary knowledge flows and fostering more dynamic innovation ecosystems. • High-speed railway (HSR) can facilitate the firms to incorporate IT knowledge from other cities into innovation. • Enlarged knowledge search scope brought about by the introduction of HSR significantly enhances future firm performance. • HSR expands knowledge search scope by increasing IT accessibility, human capital, and competition awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digitisation of transport services has led to the implementation of so-called demand-responsive transport (DRT) systems with varying setups and goals around the globe. Numerous approaches have been made to account for differences in the local circumstances and regulations to achieve the most successful outcome for those services in both, rural and urban areas. The reasons for their widespread popularity are the envisaged benefits of economically reasonable operations combined with ecologically and socially beneficial traffic. Yet, while some DRT systems persist over an extended period, many fail to become a permanent passenger transportation option, especially in rural areas. This paper shall explore parameters suited to measure the success of a DRT system and structure their inter-dependencies. Firstly, the paper presents types of flexibility and their different gradations in order to classify varying systems. Secondly, suitable and already used parameters to measure figures of DRT systems like travelled distances and vehicle occupations are examined and with their respective application cases lucidly compared. Thirdly, the paper proposes a four-step evaluation framework and discusses existing and new approaches to comparing the success of different flexible transport systems and future possibilities. • DRT services vary widely in setup and purpose and are tailored to specific contexts. • We review DRT services and differentiate along e. g. temporal and spatial flexibility. • Evaluation measures lack consistency for this transportation mode. • We gather stakeholder parameters and performance metrics for potential assessments. • Propose a framework for evaluating DRT services in research and operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Training contributes to economic growth through raising productivity, enabling the use of new technologies and allowing workers to raise earnings through widening their skills base. This paper uses mixed methods to examine individual returns to off-the-job training, on-the-job training and informal training focussing on informal workers in the sectors of construction, micro-trade and transport in urban areas of Kenya and Tanzania. Based on a cross-section, the analysis shows that earnings are 21 pct. higher for workers with off-the-job training compared to being self-taught, whilst the premium for on-the-job or informal training by a family member is 16 pct. The qualitative data provide further insights into the reasons for variations in gains across the different types of training and illuminates the role of informal worker associations in facilitating training access. Formal training should be made affordable and tailored to worker needs so that it becomes a worthwhile investment for informal workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study presented in this article shows some aspects of how children between the ages of three and five and their educators perceive and describe the educational environment in early childhood education in Sweden. The data is generated using pedagogical walk-throughs with the educators and camera tours together with the children. The study is conducted as a case study with three municipalities as cases and shows how materiality, places and relationships appear in the intersection of the educators' and children's verbal and visual descriptions of the indoor educational environment. We put diffractive readings to work to follow the entangled inter-connections and the intra-acting agency of the sociomaterial assemblages. These assemblages consist of different types of materiality, spatial conditions, the educators' verbal descriptions, the children's photographs and their verbal and bodily actions when using the cameras. The findings suggest that children and educators use, engage in and relate to the educational environment and materiality in both different and similar ways. Moreover, the children transform the educational setting organised by the educators as place changers, while materiality constructs places as placemaking materiality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropogenic Nitrogen oxides (NOx = NO2 + NO) emissions are highly concentrated in urban area, and the weekly cycles, seasonal patterns and long-term trends of tropospheric NO2 columns over cities differ from region to region due to different emission sectoral compositions and human activities. In this study, we used satellite observed tropospheric NO2 column data to compare the long-and short-term NO2 column density time series over cities in the United Sates (the U.S.), western Europe and China. The results showed that in all the targeted cities, the outbreak of the Corona Virus Disease in 2019 (COVID-19) moved the December peak of the city-level NO2 columns forward to November and October or even earlier in 2020 and 2021. On weekly level, cities in the U.S. show the lowest NO2 columns ratio on weekend/work day, then come the western European cities, and a weak weekly pattern is seen in Chinese cities. For all the cites, we find a higher weekend/work day NO2 ratio in cold seasons than in warm seasons, indicating a higher contribution from NOx emission sectors of residential, industry and power plants in the warm seasons. In the long-term, NO2 columns over the U.S. and western European cities declined by a fraction twice that of the regional mean level from 2004 to 2021. In China, NO2 columns started to decrease since 2012, at a similar rate between the city and regional level. This work confirms the importance to quantify and control NOx emissions from cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-relief coastal cities have experienced increased flooding due to climate change. During high tides or swell surges, stormwater canals or pipes can be inundated by coastal waters, causing suspended solids to accumulate at the conduits' outfall. The Chilean city Valparaiso is currently upgrading its stormwater network with costly underground stormwater aqueducts such as the coastal Argentina stormwater canal (ASC). However, soon after the ASC was put in operation, seawater intrusion and bidirectional flow at the lowest sectors of the canal decreased its water-conveying capacity, and suspended solids that otherwise would have been carried to Valparaiso Bay accumulated in the lower sectors of the canal, close to its outfall. Urban growth and a reduction in pervious land covers could worsen the current situation. Therefore, the current ASC outfall seems to be an unsustainable solution for the conveyance of rainwater and suspended solids. In this article, a hydrodynamic model of Valparaiso Bay and the ASC is presented and the current ASC hydrodynamic regime is described. The validated hydrodynamic model was used to explore the feasibility of using a submarine outfall to transport the accumulated muddy water to an offshore location. The effects of sea-level rise on the existing stormwater canal were studied and its potential to further prevent efficient conveyance of rainwater from the city to Valparaiso Bay was explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]