This conceptual article examines how the algorithmic logic of digital platforms transforms the processes through which cultural content is produced, selected, made visible, and reinterpreted. It is based on a theory-driven integrative review of peer-reviewed scholarship in platform studies and the sociology of cultural production, which combines a core corpus of anchor studies with research published after 2019 and applies explicit criteria for selecting literature and illustrative cases. Drawing on the concepts of platformization and algorithmic culture, the article reconstructs the shift from an editorial logic grounded in expert judgment to an algorithmic logic grounded in datafication and computational ranking. Through documented cases from journalism, digital gaming, music streaming, fashion, and online video, it shows how cultural producers develop strategies to optimize their visibility and how platforms recode such strategies as illegitimate manipulation, a dynamic that previous research has termed platform paternalism. The analysis yields three propositions, concerning the contingency of cultural visibility, the asymmetric legitimacy of optimization practices, and the organized opacity of ranking systems. Its main contribution is an integrated model of the double register of algorithmic power, in which the material capacity to rank content and the discursive capacity to define legitimate visibility reinforce each other in a circuit of legitimation. The article concludes that this power is exercised as much in lines of code as in the ways that code is named, invoked, and legitimized in public discourse, and it outlines limitations and directions for empirical research.
Methodological novelty seldom moves public decisions while it stays locked inside academic conversation. Survey systems that lean on artificial intelligence can support planning that is actually evidence-led, but only once transparency, human checking, local fit, and ethical answerability have been written into everyday procedure rather than left as slogans. This paper is a conceptual and normative policy reading of the Hybrid Validation and Auditing for Localized, Interpretable, Documented, and Accountable AI-Assisted Surveys framework, abbreviated here as H-VALIDA. It reports neither a field trial nor original survey microdata. Documents were gathered through a purposive search organised in four clusters fixed in advance: responsible and human-centred AI; survey methods and official-statistics quality; Indigenous data governance and data justice; and small-state, Caribbean, and Belize statistical and digital-policy texts. Widely cited international instruments were kept where they function as governance reference points rather than as local manuals. The reading itself combined heuristic use of published criteria, structured scenario work, comparative conceptual placement, documentary triangulation, and internal consistency checks across eight institutional domains. Five H-VALIDA pieces: localisation, interpretability, documentation, accountability, and hybrid validation, are set out as a minimum production protocol for offices working with thin statistical capacity, multilingual measurement, and donor-driven calendars. A five-phase adoption sequence is offered only as a planning sketch, together with operational floors for human review, documentation artefacts, role assignment, and implementation metrics. Predictable breaking points include budget shortfalls, staff turnover, political discontinuity, and external reporting pressure. The argument ends where it must: responsible uptake is institutionally thinkable if Phase 1 safeguards are treated as non-negotiable. Effectiveness claims stay propositions until someone tests them.
La industria restaurantera en México representa más de 10% del total de los negocios del país, 96% corresponde a microempresas que aportan alrededor del 1.1% del producto interno bruto. La apertura de un restaurante resulta atractiva para los emprendedores debido a sus bajas barreras de entrada y a que, frente a otros sectores, la inversión inicial puede ser moderada. Sin embargo, esta actividad presenta un alto índice de fracaso, con consecuencias económicas y sociales que trascienden al cierre del establecimiento al afectar el empleo, proveedores, inversionistas y a la dinámica comercial de la zona donde opera el negocio. Entre las causas asociadas al fracaso esta la elección de una ubicación inadecuada, lo que evidencía la necesidad de contar con criterios claros y aplicables para evaluar alternativas de localización, especialmente para un micro y pequeño negocio restaurantero. Ante esta perspectiva, el Modelo BESST (Best Site Selection for a Restaurant) es una herramienta sencilla de utilizar, que está estructurada para evaluar alternativas de localización mediante factores y subfactores relacionados con las condiciones funcionales, perceptuales y estratégicas del entorno. Su estructura se fundamenta en una rúbrica analítica que organiza los criterios de evaluación y en el Proceso de Análisis Jerárquico que permite establecer su importancia relativa según las características del negocio y el mercado meta. Si bien se ha empleado para valorar la ubicación de restaurantes temáticos, su adaptabilidad permite su uso en otros tipos de negocios restauranteros. Por tanto, el objetivo de esta investigación fue identificar los factores clave a considerar para la selección de la ubicación de un micro y pequeño negocio restaurantero mediante la adaptación del modelo, definiendo operativamente los factores y subfactores que lo integran. Para ello, se realizó una investigación transversal, cualitativa y descriptiva mediante una revisión de literatura, entrevistas a profundidad con 26 participantes vinculados a negocios restauranteros, obsevación no particpante, análisis de ubicaciones y una adaptación del método Delphi con 16 expertos en dos rondas. Como resultado se identificaron 46 subfactores agrupados en nueve factores. Los hallazgos muestran que la calidad de la ubicación depende de la interacción entre estos subfactores y su congruencia con el mercado meta, por lo que la herramienta adaptada sirve como herramienta para que los micro y pequeños negocios restauranteros puedan comparar ubicaciones de manera sistemática, reduciendo la subjetividad de la decisión y fortaleciendo su capacidad de gestión estratégica. The restaurant industry in Mexico accounts for over 10% of the country's total businesses; 96% are micro-enterprises that contribute approximately 1.1% to the Gross Domestic Product. Opening a restaurant is attractive to entrepreneurs because of low barriers to entry and moderate initial investment compared with other sectors. However, this activity has a high failure rate, with economic and social consequences that extend beyond the closure of the establishment itself, affecting employment, suppliers, investors, and the commercial dynamics of the area where the business operates. One cause of failure is selecting an unsuitable location, highlighting the need for clear, applicable criteria to evaluate location alternatives, particularly for micro and small restaurant businesses. In this context, the BESST Model (Best Site Selection for a Restaurant) is an easy-to-use tool for evaluating location alternatives based on factors and sub-factors related to the environment's functional, perceptual, and strategic conditions. Its structure is based on an analytical rubric that organizes evaluation criteria and on the Analytic Hierarchy Process, which determines relative importance based on business characteristics and the target market. Although it has been used to assess locations for themed restaurants, its adaptability allows it to be used with other types of restaurant businesses. Therefore, this research aimed to identify key factors for selecting a location for a micro or small restaurant business by adapting the model and operationally defining the factors and sub-factors that comprise it. To this end, a cross-sectional, qualitative, descriptive study was conducted using a literature review, in-depth interviews with 26 restaurant industry participants, non-participant observation, location analysis, and an adapted Delphi method with 16 experts over two rounds. The study identified 46 sub-factors grouped into nine factors. The key finding is that location quality depends on the interaction between these sub-factors and their alignment with the target market; consequently, adapting this tool enables micro and small restaurant businesses to compare locations systematically, reducing decision-making subjectivity and strengthening their strategic management capabilities.
La croissance urbaine rapide des villes d'Afrique centrale s'accompagne d'une intensification des îlots de chaleur urbains, dont la compréhension nécessite d'identifier les déterminants biophysiques de la température de surface (LST). Si l'influence de l'occupation du sol sur la LST est bien documentée dans le monde, le rôle de la géomorphologie reste peu exploré, surtout dans les villes situées dans le bassin du Congo. Cette étude analyse l'influence de six paramètres géomorphologiques (altitude, pente, orientation, courbure, indice topographique d'humidité et distance au réseau hydrographique) sur la distribution spatiale de la LST à Brazzaville au Congo, à partir d’une approche diachronique couvrant les années 2013, 2018 et 2022. À partir de la Mission topographique radar de la navette spatiale (30 m) et des images Landsat 8 (n = 30 724 points), l'analyse combine corrélations de Pearson, régression linéaire multiple (RLM), test d'autocorrélation spatiale de Moran's I sur les résidus, et régression géographiquement pondérée (RGP). Les résultats montrent que toutes les variables sont significativement corrélées à la LST (p < 0,001). La pente présente la relation la plus dynamique puisque son effet rafraîchissant se renforce nettement entre 2013 et 2022 (coefficient OLS de -0,150 à -0,195, soit +30 %). Les modèles OLS globaux, bien que tous significatifs, n'expliquent qu'environ 19 % de la variance de la LST. La forte autocorrélation spatiale des résidus (Moran's I ≈ 0,83–0,87) révèle une non-stationnarité spatiale marquée, confirmée par la GWR qui améliore considérablement l'ajustement (R² ≈ 0,84–0,88) et met en évidence une inversion locale de l'effet de la pente selon le contexte topographique et d'urbanisation (coefficient oscillant entre -0,749 et +0,754). Ces résultats démontrent que la géomorphologie constitue un déterminant structurant et évolutif de la structure thermique urbaine, indépendamment de l'occupation du sol, et plaident pour son intégration dans les documents de planification urbaine et d'adaptation climatique à Brazzaville. The rapid urban growth of cities in Central Africa is accompanied by an intensification of urban heat islands, and understanding this phenomenon requires identifying the biophysical determinants of land surface temperature (LST). While the influence of land cover on LST is well documented worldwide, the role of geomorphology remains largely unexplored, especially in cities located in the Congo Basin. This study analyzes the influence of six geomorphological parameters (elevation, slope, aspect, curvature, topographic humidity index, and distance to the river network) on the spatial distribution of LST in Brazzaville, Congo, using a diachronic approach covering the years 2013, 2018, and 2022. Using Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (30 m) data and Landsat 8 images (n = 30,724 points), the analysis combines Pearson correlations, multiple linear regression (OLS), Moran’s I spatial autocorrelation test on the residuals, and geographically weighted regression (GWR). The results show that all variables are significantly correlated with LST (p < 0.001). Slope exhibits the most dynamic relationship, as its cooling effect increased markedly between 2013 and 2022 (OLS coefficient from -0.150 to -0.195, a 30% increase). The overall OLS models, although all significant, explain only about 19% of the variance in the LST. The strong spatial autocorrelation of the residuals (Moran’s I ≈ 0.83–0.87) reveals marked spatial non-stationarity, confirmed by the GWR, which significantly improves the fit (R² ≈ 0.84–0.88) and highlights a local reversal of the slope effect depending on the topographic and urbanization context (coefficient ranging from -0.749 to +0.754). These results demonstrate that geomorphology is a structuring and evolving determinant of the urban thermal structure, independent of land use, and support its integration into urban planning and climate adaptation documents in Brazzaville.
A white crowd seized Zachariah Walker from a Pennsylvania hospital and burned him alive on August 13, 1911. The killing became a public spectacle, followed by souvenir collecting, investigation, and prosecutions that produced no conviction. This article examines the relationship between that public violence, its documentary record, and the failure of criminal accountability. Comparative historical documentary analysis follows the case through 1911–1912. Nine primary texts examined directly, including contextual interventions by civil rights activist Mary Church Terrell and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), are distinguished from newspaper and archival references accessed through scholarship. Comparison separates reported events, institutional judgments, and subsequent interpretations. The records document a wounded prisoner's removal from protection, repeated efforts to force him into the fire, and the appropriation of his remains. His wound was reported as an attempted suicide, but the published historical record also preserves a conflicting account. Contemporary criticism of witness silence and county juries coexisted with disputes about investigative methods and prosecution evidence. Acquittals, the unsuccessful effort to transfer proceedings, and abandonment of remaining cases left the killing unpunished. Coatesville exposes a national problem of unequal protection within functioning institutions. Spectacle asserted racial power over the living as well as the victim, while Black antilynching writing contested the conversion of accusation into a license to kill. Later developments in criminal law, voting research, and public memory establish the continuing stakes of that problem without making one case an explanation of all subsequent racial exclusion.
