Projects

Project of the week

How data is changing our cities

Streets populated by autonomous cars, heated pavements and hundreds of sensors that monitor movement and air quality in the public domain. Sidewalk Labs, a subsidiary of Google parent Alphabet, had plans to make the Quayside neighbourhood in downtown Toronto the epitome of a smart city. Although the project was cancelled in May 2020 owing to economic uncertainties, Quayside can now serve as an urban-design blueprint for multinational tech giants.

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Project of the week

The role of religion in the Russian “culture war”

In recent years, the Russian Orthodox Church has tried to become an international influencer propagating conservative moral values. This is the research finding of Kristina Stoeckl, a sociologist of religion. Following Russia’s attack on Ukraine, many religiously inspired right-wing groups distanced themselves from Moscow at least for the time being. It remains to be seen whether this rejection will be long term.

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Project of the week

What biofictions tell us about gender

Fiction often reveals more about the time in which it was written than about the time in which it is set. Julia Lajta-Novak knows that this rule applies especially to biographical fiction. This English literary scholar investigates novels and films about historical women artists by analysing the language, structure and reception of countless works with a focus on gender and genre.

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Science in Motion

Portrait

When food is the enemy

By Margit Schwarz-Stiglbauer

In Austria, eight in one hundred children and adolescents are being treated for an eating disorder. That, however, is only a quarter of all those who are actually affected, and they are getting younger and younger. Child and adolescent psychiatrist Andreas Karwautz has three decades of experience at the special outpatient clinic for eating disorders at Vienna General Hospital. He would wish to see more of those affected seeking psychiatric help at an early stage.

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On the road