Volume 1, No. 4Art, Technology, AI, Heritage and Management

Virtual Reality (VR) and the concept of Digital Twin (DT) encompass a range of technologies that blend the physical and virtual worlds, finding applications in various fields. These technologies offer new ways to visualize and interact with data and environments, including Virtual Reality (VR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR). Our VR research-creation methodology seeks to present new methods for preserving cultural heritage, creating VR heritage preservation applications with the assistance of AI. It outlines how the heated debate technology assists the project and proposes a framework that empowers other academics to develop projects in a similar field. The article ends with proposed ideas that engage diaspora communities in the discussion and use the mentioned technologies as tools of migrant studies and diasporic identities, a new paradigm shift in studying heritage.

A distinctive cultural trend is emerging among Kenyan youth on social media, especially TikTok, where users dress and act like their grandparents—using walking sticks, donning vintage attires, and dancing or lip-syncing to classic Mugithi Music. Popularly labelled as ‘grannycore,’ the highlighted trend goes beyond mere entertainment; instead, it signals a growing and deeper engagement with digital performance, ethnic identity, and cultural heritage. This study scraped and analyzed publicly available TikTok videos that focused on Mugithi (126 videos) and grannycore (39 videos). The study utilized Apify for data scraping, and statistical analysis was conducted using STATA. Quantitative elements like views, likes, shares, comments, and saves were evaluated alongside qualitative elements like user engagement and video content. The findings reveal that Mugithi enjoys high engagement and visibility, with average views hitting 409,642. In contrast, grannycore, with average views of 177,551, is in the niche category. Despite this, the granny-themed videos show strong audience interactions through saves, comments, and shares. The trend illustrates that Mugithi and grannycore are more than entertainment, and the two act as mediated forms of identity construction and general sociocultural critique. Young Kenyans on TikTok are blending tradition, satire, and digital creativity to promote and assert cultural belonging and continuity during these uncertain times.

The study of leadership styles is significant in both theory and practice, as leadership approaches profoundly influence individual and organizational performance. This paper examines the five primary leadership styles—transformational, transactional, strength-based, adaptive, and servant leadership—by exploring their defining characteristics and practical applications. Transformational leadership is distinguished by key elements such as intellectual stimulation, inspirational communication, and a compelling vision. Transactional leadership, in contrast, is characterized by contingent reward systems and management by exception. Strength-based leadership focuses on identifying, utilizing, and developing individual strengths to enhance team performance. Adaptive leadership equips leaders with the ability to navigate complexity and change effectively. Finally, servant leadership prioritizes the well-being of followers, emphasizing ethical behavior, emotional support, and empowerment. Various models and measurement frameworks for these leadership styles are also discussed to guide future research and practice.

Community-Based Tourism (CBT) is an emerging approach to tourism development that emphasizes the active and meaningful participation of local communities in managing tourism resources, with the aim of ensuring sustainable, equitable, and culturally grounded development. This study identifies the key challenges, opportunities, and strategic requirements for CBT through a qualitative approach and documentary analysis. By focusing on essential components such as socio-economic justice, local empowerment, and environmental sustainability, the multidimensional nature of CBT is explored. The findings reveal that centralized governance, infrastructural inadequacies, limited financial capacity, tokenistic participation, inequitable benefit distribution, and weak stakeholder coordination are among the major barriers to CBT development. To address these challenges, strategies such as community education, delegation of authority to local institutions, infrastructure enhancement, justice-oriented policymaking, and improved multi-stakeholder collaboration are proposed. Furthermore, the comparative analysis of successful and unsuccessful CBT experiences in Iran and other countries highlights the necessity of designing frameworks rooted in genuine participation, the mobilization of indigenous capacities, and long-term commitment to sustainability principles. These insights provide practical implications for policy, planning, and management of community-based tourism initiatives.

This research investigates how artificial intelligence (AI) can enhance health equity by bridging the persistent divide between urban and rural healthcare systems. While AI has demonstrated remarkable potential in diagnostics, telemedicine, and predictive analytics, its implementation remains highly uneven across regions. Urban centers benefit from robust digital infrastructure, while rural and remote communities face limited connectivity, workforce shortages, and cultural barriers to adoption.

Drawing on recent global studies, this paper analyzes how AI-driven tools can reduce geographic health disparities, provided that ethical, infrastructural, and educational foundations are addressed. Through a qualitative synthesis of open-access research and selected interviews with digital health practitioners, the study identifies critical enablers of equitable digital transformation: inclusive data practices, culturally adaptive design, community-driven capacity building, and hybrid telehealth models that integrate human expertise with machine intelligence. The paper proposes a framework for AI-Enabled Health Equity built on three strategic pillars:

1. Access and Infrastructure, ensuring digital connectivity and interoperability for rural clinics;

2. Trust and Transparency, promoting algorithmic explainability and patient confidence;

3. Local Capacity and Co-Creation, empowering rural health workers through participatory AI training and design.

By reframing AI as a socio-technical ecosystem rather than a purely technological upgrade, this research contributes to ongoing debates on inclusive digital health transformation and sustainable innovation in underserved areas.

The integration of biodiversity into urban development has become a critical challenge for sustainable city planning, yet it remains insufficiently embedded within dominant design and policy frameworks. This article examines the theoretical foundations, methodological approaches, and emerging empirical insights of the URBIO Bauhaus project, an initiative that extends the New European Bauhaus (NEB) framework by explicitly positioning biodiversity as a core pillar alongside sustainability, aesthetics, and social inclusion. The study synthesizes key concepts informing biodiversity-centered urban design. The analysis highlights the relevance of biophilic city theory, urban ecosystem services, landscape ecology, and nature-based solutions, while emphasizing the importance of participatory methodologies such as Living Labs, co-creation, and the Quintuple Helix governance model. Case study evidence from transnational testing in Central European cities illustrates how universal biodiversity principles can be adapted to diverse socio-spatial contexts through collaborative BIOCENTUM nodes. The findings demonstrate that integrating ecological functionality with aesthetic quality and inclusive governance can enhance urban resilience, social well-being, and environmental stewardship.