Würzburg. How are metropolises developing in the world? And what do their residents say about it? This is what the linguist Carolin Biewer from the University of Würzburg wants to investigate with the German Aerospace Center (DLR) – and is being funded with 900,000 euros.
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How do we want to live? In the countryside? Or would you prefer to be in the city? The last few centuries have shown that cities are growing and growing – right up to gigantic megacities with millions of inhabitants. How people construct and perceive their living space in such a city is what Prof. Dr. Examine Carolin Biewer. She is Professor of English Linguistics at the Julius Maximilians University (JMU) Würzburg and is now being funded by the Volkswagen Foundation for this project as part of the “Momentum – Funding for First-Time Employees” initiative.
Process large amounts of data
With over 900,000 euros from September, Biewer can push ahead with the realignment of its chair over the next five years. The aim is to combine theories and methods of English linguistics in questions of the use, perception, division and evaluation of space with those of remote sensing from geography in order to better understand spaces such as large cities in their complexity. Methods from the field of artificial intelligence and “digital humanities” are used to evaluate large amounts of data. The title of the research project: “A New Focus in English Linguistics: Geolingual Studies”.
Using remote sensing and artificial intelligence, building types and the building density of a district can be identified using satellite data. They also show how cities grow and change, in which areas of the city are dangers from landslides or floods. Night shots show which areas are densely populated via light emissions. But these data alone do not provide any information about which social networks the people in the settlements belong to, how they construct their urban identity, how they deal with problems such as housing shortages and air pollution, how they perceive their city. This is where Biewer comes into play: “With additional communication data, you can read out and get a precise idea of how people perceive and shape their living space,” says the professor.
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This is exactly what Biewer and her team would like to investigate, especially in so-called megacities. To do this, she will look at different communication channels. In addition to newspaper data and interviews, a well-known example: Twitter. With the short message service, the research team can collect large amounts of anonymized data and evaluate it linguistically according to which topics and locations in the city are mentioned and which feelings are expressed. The aim is to find out how people shape their environment, how they perceive it and how they express themselves about it. For example, do residents in London speak more about city parks than about the fitness studios in their neighborhood during Corona times? Do you find a lockdown annoying or rather frightening? And how are the people in Hong Kong? In addition to Corona, are you concerned with the housing shortage or the impact of the political situation on your city? What changes in their neighborhoods do city dwellers view with concern? And what do they perceive to be an enrichment for their quality of life? “In the end, the key question is: How do we want to live?” Says Biewer. It lacks the global discussion of how people want to shape their future life in cities and what challenges they have to face. She therefore sees great importance in her approach to urban planning. “The humanities can make an enormous contribution to solving socially relevant questions like these. We should exploit the potential. “
International cooperation
In addition to sharpening the professorship’s professional profile, the JMU team is looking to establish an international research cooperation in order to jointly develop research methods for megacities in different regions of the world and to be able to compare study results. Which locations will play a role? London and Hong Kong are already set. Other interesting objects of investigation for Biewer would be New York, Tokyo, Mexico City, Bogota, Moscow, Istanbul or Delhi.
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A central partner in the implementation of geolingual studies is the German Aerospace Center (DLR) together with the remote sensing department of the Institute for Geography and Geology at JMU. Biewer and PD Dr. Hannes Taubenböck, head of the “City and Society” team at DLR and private lecturer at JMU.
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In addition to the pure research work, a master’s degree in geolingual studies is also planned at the JMU in the future. This is intended to address interested students from English linguistics, but also from geography, and allow research to flow into practical training that offers graduates a wide range of career prospects, such as in urban planning.
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