Antarctic Cities. Volume 3, Antarctic Connectivity Index
The Antarctic Connectivity Index is an innovative and comprehensive instrument developed through a collaborative project involving a number of universities, agencies and cities. It provides an evidence-based means of showing the various levels of connectivity of cities as they engage with Antarctica...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Report |
| Language: | English |
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Penrith, N.S.W., Western Sydney University. Institute for Culture and Society
2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.26183/x5mz-qa16 https://hdl.handle.net/1959.7/uws:70212 |
| Summary: | The Antarctic Connectivity Index is an innovative and comprehensive instrument developed through a collaborative project involving a number of universities, agencies and cities. It provides an evidence-based means of showing the various levels of connectivity of cities as they engage with Antarctica. This Antarctic Connectivity Index seeks to understand the level and nature of the connections of cities across the world to the Antarctic region. For the purposes of this index, the concept of ‘the Antarctic region’ includes Antarctica, the Southern Ocean and the sub-Antarctic region. The notion of ‘connectivity’ is used in the deeper historical meaning of the condition of being ‘joined together’ from the Latin conectere, to bind or establish a relationship—rather than the contemporary thinning out of the concept as the establishment of a mediated communications channel. This mean that the connectivity is understood across a range of domains—ecological, economic, political, and cultural—rather than limited to communications technologies and other infrastructural means of connection. The Index has been refined through comparative international case studies, surveys and research into current publicly available indicators. As a result of this process, we are at the beta-stage of developing a comprehensive instrument to gauge a city’s current status as an ‘Antarctic city’. The index is intended as a guide to thinking and practice as citizens of these cities contribute to Antarctica’s future. We are keenly interested in the activities of the Antarctic gateway cities and their transition to become Antarctic custodial cities. At the same time, this index is intended to have a global reach and allow for any city to evaluate its connections to the Antarctic. In setting up the index and its variables we have included consideration of cities other than the five gateway cities to bring in different kinds of relations to the Antarctic that are generally applicable. |
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