Tobler's First Law of Geography (TFL) is foundational to spatial analysis. Responding to Sui's () invitation to consider whether geography is just a footnote to TFL, we develop a five-axis framework to compare major spatial statistical paradigms. Four axes cover spatiotemporal interconnectedness, distance and nearness, heterogeneity and scale, and temporal dynamics, with a methodological layer on estimation, inference, and learning. We examine five paradigms in depth: geostatistics and Gaussian random fields, lattice and spatial econometrics, Moran eigenvector spatial filtering, geographically weighted regression, and geospatial artificial intelligence and spatial learning. The framework also extends to additional paradigms. This synthesis supports an expanded TFL in which spatial relatedness varies with distance, connectivity, context, scale, and time, and highlights implications for spatial statistical modeling in the artificial intelligence era.
FinTech has transformed financial systems by expanding credit access, simplifying digital payments, and reducing transaction costs. Yet, its long-term contribution to financial inclusion, particularly in vulnerable contexts of the Global South, remains uncertain, as conventional models often reproduce inequalities through standardized, top-down approaches that overlook local social, economic, and territorial specificities. This article critically examines social FinTech as an alternative, emphasizing the reconfiguration of boundaries between social and market objectives. Drawing on semistructured interviews with managers of community digital banks in Brazil and coordinators of their national network, the study provides empirical insights into locally grounded financial technologies. Building on Langley's () concept of folding, the article argues that social FinTech selectively folds social and market logics in territorially embedded and locally oriented ways, reconfiguring market-social boundaries through bottom-up arrangements that prioritize long-term inclusion over profit maximization. Community digital banks adapt services to specific local contexts, strengthen social networks, and provide guidance, focusing on local engagement, financial and digital literacy, and tailored support rather than scale or standardization. By highlighting the territorial, social, and relational dimensions of digital finance, the article contributes both theoretically and empirically, showing how bottom-up, context-aware FinTech can foster more equitable, resilient, and sustainable financial inclusion.
Research on immigrant residential behavior has tended to be divided between structural approaches emphasizing housing markets, policy, and discrimination, and cultural-experiential approaches foregrounding preferences, networks, and agency. These orientations operate largely in parallel. We propose Lefebvre's spatial triad (conceived, perceived, and lived space) as an integrative framework that bridges them by foregrounding the process through which residential space is socially produced: the dialectical interplay of institutional logics, everyday practices, and lived meanings. We demonstrate this framework through the case of established Iranian immigrants in suburban Toronto, Canada, drawing on spatial analysis of 2021 census data, interviews with fifty-four Iranian immigrants and seven real estate agents, and ethnographic observation, and examine how residential space is produced at two scales. At the neighborhood scale, safety, social class, and ethnoracial belonging intersect with school catchments, infrastructure, and ethnic networks to produce distinct "Iranian neighborhoods" in the affluent northern suburbs. At the dwelling scale, cultural imperatives-hospitality, privacy, and aberoo-draw families into engagement with mortgage and investment logics. We argue that these multiscalar patterns are best understood as dialectically produced homescapes. Because the framework captures the process of spatial production rather than predicting a particular outcome, it offers a transferable lens for studying how diverse immigrant groups actively produce (sub)urban space.
The symbols and imagery painted in public murals play a powerful role in shaping a sense of community and place identity. This study within the anthracite coal region of northeastern Pennsylvania employed a photovoice method in which participants took photographs for critical discussion, analyzed them, and presented findings in an art installation. Participants' photography of murals and other subjects served as a foundation for a community-engaged exploration of sense of community and place identity, with the overall aim of examining how residents interpret, respond to, and coproduce meaning from the content and themes found within local murals. The creative acts involved in the photovoice process offered an accessible way to engage in a higher form of critical analysis and communicate findings in modes beyond written academic language. The results were presented in the form of an immersive canopy-style art installation. Artists, policymakers, and community members walked beneath woven yarn canopies that showed key themes of social responsibility, holistic well-being, and the history and future of the region resonated the most with participants. The immersive art installation turned research findings into a public conversation, highlighting how intentional knowledge translation could promote community dialogue about sense of community and place identity.
