Who are the most followed following? A data analysis case study of the accounts the Top

To achieve the aims of the research, three important considerations are required:

d) To identify the outline of the city and the urban core through exploring four chronological periods when Erbil witnessed significant changes: the Assyrian, the Attabeg, the prosperous (Hathebani and Attabeg), the Early Modern and the Modern periods.

e) To study the reasons for change and persistence in the urban core and to investigate their impact on the urban elements, such as paths, nodes and edges, and the intangible aspects, such as events and activities.

f) To understand how the intangible aspects, the urban elements and their interrelationship changed under the influence of the various agents. This will be achieved by exploring three chronological periods during which the urban core

Methodology

This study adopts a qualitative research methodology involving multiple methods with the triangulation approach applied to deliver conceptual understanding of the urban core. This approach needs different resources to be deployed at the same time for obtaining specific information, which include multiple strategies to overcome the problems faced by previous researchers – namely reliance on, (i) a single theory, (ii) a single approach, and (iii) specific data. The case of Erbil city and its urban core is complex due to the lack of written sources, maps, archaeological evidence and because information is scattered over different countries. This has prevented architecture and urban studies from delving deeply into the past, hence their focus has tended to start

from the beginning of the twentieth century. This is why the current study will use a triangulation approach to deal with the changes and the persistencies within the urban core, since it will directly assist in understanding the current state of the urban area in order to benefit future studies.

Data Collection

The aim of combining multiple sources of primary and secondary data is to aid the study’s in-depth investigation of the urban core, which no individual source can currently provide. The primary data will rely on multi method data collection techniques include site visits, traveling to different countries in order to collect maps, photographs, drawings and other information; formal and informal group discussions, interviews (structured and semi-structured) with historian, archaeologists and others.

Interviewee will be chosen according to their knowledge about the subjects that need to be studied, such as people who work in the bazar or are owners of different parts of the bazar.

Secondary data, such as via the literature review, will support the study in order to illustrate and define the changes and persistencies as well as to identify the methods and techniques for analysing the space structure. These data will include historical, archaeological, architectural and urban design sources.

Preparing Existing Material for Analysis

The documentary evidence, such as maps, pictures, photographs and sketches, will represent the physical and tangible realities of the subject area and they will also help to understand the changes. These will be collected from different institutions, museums, people, and others sources. For the purpose of analysis, maps will be re-drawn through the AutoCAD program and will be supported by the ArcGIS program, since some of them were in picture form or were hand or AutoCAD drawings and some have inaccurate dimensions.

Methods of Analysis and Interpretation of Material

Three main variables were identified, (i) the urban elements, such as paths, nodes, and edges, with their characteristics together with the intangible aspects, such as rituals, events, activities, and customs, (ii) the interrelationship of the urban elements, which

relies on the aspects of coherence and the integration vs segregation, and (iii) the agents of change – i.e. socio-cultural, economic and political decisions taken by rulers, together with events that impact on the urban environment (see Chapter 2).

The analysis will be divided into two stages, the first stage will be sub-divided into four periods, the Assyrian period, the prosperous (the Hathebani and Attabeg, periods) – the Early Modern and the Modern periods. This first stage includes tracing the historic urban elements of Erbil city, such as the paths, nodes and edges, excluding the citadel, even though it is one of the main nodes. The outline of the urban core will also be identified and the origins of its urban public space traced.

The second stage will be divided into three periods – the Attabeg, the Early Modern and the Modern. The main focus of this stage will be on the character of the urban core, the changes in its tangible and intangible aspects, the agents of those changes and the interrelationship between its urban elements. The persistent elements will also be traced.

Methods and tools for analysis will be developed in order to verify the change in the urban elements - i.e. the paths, nodes, edges - and in their interrelationships. The persistent elements, such as the hidden rules, the physical signs, the propelling elements and other intangible aspects, will be identified. Historical analysis, visual analysis, content analysis, comparison, mapping and the figure and ground technique will also be used to analyse the nature of the configuration of the urban core.

The mechanisms for extracting the persistent elements - artefacts, buildings, monuments, and types of functions that exist in the urban core - can be through morphological studies and a diachronic approach; they are revealed clearly by analysing and monitoring any change that has happened to the old urban fabric. For the urban core, it will include tracing the urban elements and the intangible aspects through the four chronological stages, and removing the non-common elements and maintaining the intrinsic properties.