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Essentially all academic research of today relies on analysis of data from a wide range of sources. Several underpinning, and rapidly developing, technologies are supporting the analysis of this data. Visualization serves as an interface to this ecosystem of tools and methods and integrates them into environments supporting scientific workflows, effectively sharing cognitive load between computers and humans. There is, however, a gap between the state-of-the-art in visual data analysis and current wide-spread academic practice. Support for the introduction of new, improved and tailored, visual data analysis environments thus has the potential to address challenges involving large and complex data, creating competitive advantages for researchers. To fill the gap and capitalize on this opportunity, the InfraVis initiative has been created in Sweden with the mission to operate an infrastructure consisting of visualization experts, software solutions, and access to high-end visualization laboratories. Users of InfraVis are offered assistance through a national helpdesk with rapid response times as well as more in-depth projects addressing specific data and software challenges. InfraVis provides software solutions based on development within connected research groups, curation of international software and best practice, and user training in the form of courses, seminars and on-line documentation. To build an infrastructure with national coverage, we have pooled together nine visualization environments in Sweden interconnected in a nodal structure. The nodes are hosted in proximity to research environments in visualization, which enables direct access to the research front as well as to state-of-art facilities. The governance structure of InfraVis is based on the leading researchers in visualization in Sweden as well as an international advisory board.

This paper discusses intercity networks within the former Soviet Union (FSU), a semi-periphery of the global economic system of interactions. Intercity networks are constructed following an assumption that interaction between offices of the same corporation indicates connectivity between cities. In the FSU global corporations operate against a backdrop of continuous uncertainty. Consequently, it is possible to estimate temporal dynamics and spatial distribution of uncertainty by looking at the evolving structures of global companies with the example of global advanced producer service (APS) companies. These companies are regarded as brokers, integrating the region into the global business activities. The dataset comprises structures of the APS firms within the region in 2015 and 2018. A comparative analysis of networks in 2015 and 2018 demonstrates temporal dynamics of network reconfiguration and unequal spatial distribution of corporate offices in uncertain conditions. Through the lens of the network transformation, we reveal the continuous restructuring and peripheralization of the region.

In this thesis globalisation is explored from both a temporal and spatial perspective, focusing on the role of global advanced producer service (APS) companies. These firms, recognised in the literature as key agents of globalisation, facilitate international outreach for other companies. The research spans three papers focusing on two areas: the former Soviet Union and Sweden. In both territories, it demonstrates how global APS companies adapt their location strategies to local contexts. In Sweden, the research further explores the role of global APS companies in shaping localised labour demand, highlighting their position in the competition within various job categories. In order to provide a comprehensive understanding of global APS firms’ business strategies, the thesis employs a range of methodologies, including network analysis, modelling, machine learning and text analysis.

The findings uncover the dual nature of global APS companies, which simultaneously follow planetary trends while swiftly responding to changes in local conditions for doing business. Consequently, the complex and fragmented nature of globalisation is revealed. The temporal dimension plays a crucial role in the analysis, showcasing the diversity of spatial and labour market strategies of global APS companies over time. Additionally, the research highlights the influence of companies’ sectorial specialisations regarding business strategies and responsiveness to local contexts. This illustrates how companies within the same sector may adopt different approaches to location and hiring principles depending on specific local conditions.

The thesis advocates for a multi-scalar approach to globalisation research, emphasising the importance of scale in methodological considerations. It underscores how the choice of scale impacts research findings, demonstrating that globalisation manifests differently at various levels of analysis. This insight reinforces the need for reflection on scale as a key element in the design and interpretation of globalisation studies. This nuanced approach challenges universal narratives of globalisation, advocating for more contextualised and scale-sensitive research frameworks.

Assessing the potential of the cultural ecosystem services of green areas (values, images and behaviors that green areas offer to their visitors) is one of the tasks of the systemic development of natural ecosystems in the city. The article shows how data from geolocated social media, namely Instagram supplemented with Google Places and Strava, is used to analyze the representation of green areas in the perception of users as well as their actual use practices. In the study of Voronezh 33 topical green zones represented in Instagram posts are defined and the categories of public value of the green zones are constructed based on the hashtags. Three varying cases of urban green are analyzed in detail and compared to demonstrate the ability of the VGI to reveal differences in their public value. It is shown how different VGI sources supplement each other and give a more nuanced picture of the public value profile of the park. 

The gradual formation of income segregation in the post-Soviet city leads to the localization of protest voting. An important role in this process is played by new residential complexes (RCs), where a population with similar income levels and ideas about the quality of the living environment is accumulated. The gap between expectations and reality when purchasing housing under construction, as well as the discrepancy between the quality of the urban environment inside and outside the residential complex, lead to the emergence of hotbeds of protest voting in new residential complexes. The key concepts to explain such protest voting are “the right to the city” and “the city for the people.” Initially, these terms were associated with political activism aimed at increasing citizen participation in urban governance. On the territory of Russia, the idea of ​​a “city for people” becomes identical to the reproduction of its physical characteristics outside the political component. The attributes of a city for people, including safety, accessibility, and environmental comfort, are promoted by developers as part of marketing campaigns and influence demand. However, the systematic lack of declared elements in new residential complexes leads residents to political protest, which can be interpreted as the exercise of the right to the city, manifested in a critical attitude towards the infringement of the rights of residents by developers and city administration and a request for equal participation in city management. The article examines in detail an example of protest voting in the new residential complex “I am Romantic”, located in the alluvial territories of St. Petersburg. The polling station, located on the territory of a residential complex, stands out from neighboring polling stations in terms of the level of protest voting, which was especially pronounced in the elections for the governor of St. Petersburg. The gap between expectation and reality and between the internal space of a residential complex and the urban environment external to it pushes residents to protest voting.

In this paper we study subjective perception of the city space represented through geography of emotions. In particular, we analyze the continuity of user experience in the city, considering user emotions as connected states. To do this, we develop a concept of an "emotional street network" and analyze the integrity of human emotional experience through availability and connectivity of its emotional network, as well as its valence. To explore the relevance of the emotional street network concept, we use data from a public participation geoinformational system (PPGIS) Imprecity, where users can leave emoji and comments on their feelings in public spaces of 6 types – joy, anger, sorrow, fear, disgust, and surprise. Dataset consists of more than 2000 emotional marks from 600 unique users in open public spaces of St. Petersburg, Russia. Two networks of positive and negative emotions were built: the locations less than 500 m length from each other (a classic measure for pedestrian accessibility) marked with emoji were connected with Points to path algorithm in QGIS software, afterwards collated with the street-road network. The connectivity of the final networks was calculated through axial connectivity index using QGIS Space Syntax plug-in. Both resulting emotional street networks have hierarchical structure – more connected areas in the city center and less connected in the periphery. The negative emotional network is more dispersed, reflecting a more localized and geographically distanced character of negative emotions, covering more peripheral areas than the positive one.

In a rapidly globalizing world, cities have acquired a prominent position. Thus, one can argue for a city-centric rather than a state-centric world. While not denying that globalization is assuredly changing a relationship between national states and cities, in the paper, the authors question the applicability of the city-centric globalization within the post-Soviet space. The paper addresses two questions. Firstly, by analyzing locational strategies of international organizations within the post-Soviet space, the study is aimed to reveal a relative level of globalization of post-Soviet cities. Secondly, through analysis of the list of globalizing cities within the post-Soviet space the authors explore the relationship between states and cities in the process of this globalization. Three types of international organizations have been investigated: diplomatic representatives, international government organizations and international non-government organizations. The study has revealed 28 cities highly involved in international political affairs. Even though cities from all post-Soviet states formed the final list, some ex-Soviet states are represented better than the others. Moreover, the lists of cities and countries are different regarding the type of international organizations. The results are discussed through the prism of the relationship between a city and a state. The analysis of the list of the cities leads to the conclusion of co-dependency between national conditions and the level of urban globalization. The paper argues the mutual interdependence between the involvement into globalization process and the significance of state institutions when the advantages of the world leading states and cities are continuously enlarging. This result acquires particular importance as in the current state of world cities’ research, the national aspect remains unexamined as a sort of hidden effect on space globalization.