This paper focuses on the specifics of the relationships between social entrepreneurs and local civil servants and politicians in The Netherlands. Policy frameworks for social enterprises (SE) are relatively underdeveloped here, as the central government took little initiative in policy development, and a legal definition for SE is lacking. This poses problems, but it also opens up possibilities to develop dialogue between local government and social entrepreneurs “bottom-up”.Both parties’ views of each other are explored, a practical tool to open dialogue is introduced and eight examples of collaboration are discussed.Through the collected experiences at local and regional levels, policy makers at the national level now also increasingly recognize the importance of SEs in the Dutch economy, and realize that the lack of national policy and legal frameworks has proven limiting and increased vulnerability of the sector. For the coming years, there are signs that policy support for SEs will become more structured and national policy action is likely.
MULTIFILE
This study focuses on top-down and bottom-up processes within the field of energy transition. It aims at gaining insights into the ways that a more balanced approach can be achieved, by taking into consideration the (mutual) interests, barriers and expectations of the municipality and local citizen initiatives. The theoretical framework of the study is the implementation analysis framework, distinguishing top-down and bottom-up approaches. Specifically, this qualitative (thematic analysis) research study investigates the mismatch in expectations between a number of local energy initiatives and the municipality of Groningen regarding their roles within the local energy transition context. To this end, semi-structured interviews have been conducted with members of the municipality of Groningen, Grunneger Power (a local energy intermediary), and four local energy initiatives. Need and expectation gaps have been identified and potential solutions have been explored. The main findings of the study illustrate the need of professional support for citizen initiatives, at both technical and organizational level, especially in the first phases of their development. Additionally, clear mutual communication on short and long-term planning and ambitions of the involved parties is of key importance for the alignment of the interests and the course of actions. Consequently, a clear context is needed, within which an exchange of feedback on the envisioned strategies, and the subsequent energy saving or generation interventions, can take place in an efficient and effective way. Additionally, such a context increases confidence and provides a clear understanding to the citizen initiatives regarding their role and the level and nature of support they can expect in their intended projects and activities. Based on these findings, policy implications have been drawn.
Extending the lifespan of products can be approached in several ways. One promising way is to give users a greater sense of ownership of the products that are used. In the context of Product Service Systems (PSS), products are often used temporarily, shared with others, and offered through a technology-mediated environment. Not much is known about psychological ownership in this context. To evaluate psychological ownership affordances as an intermediate knowledge tool in the context of PSS, we started a case study focused on a bicycle sharing service of The Student Hotel (TSH). The central question was how a design approach, based on psychological ownership, can help to redesign the bicycle-service of TSH to contribute to extended lifespans of the bicycles. This resulted in ten exemplary designs as project outcomes and two implemented design interventions in a TSH branch. All project members and stakeholders (app supplier X-bike and Roetz-bikes mechanics) and students of Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) and Utrecht University of Applied Sciences (HU) (n=42) were interviewed on process efficiency, process quality and design quality at the end of the collaboration. We performed a qualitative analysis to identify when and how the team members applied the design tool, how these obstructed or supported the design process, and if the team members show shared understanding of the behavioral and/or social consequences of their decisions. The results show both top-down and bottom-up insights, leading to four suggestions for adapting the existing model as an intermediate knowledge tool: (1) being more goal-oriented, (2) consider a hierarchy of affordances, (3) consider to add a new affordance and (4) recognize a more active role of the service provider.
In order to achieve much-needed transitions in energy and health, systemic changes are required that are firmly based on the principles of regard for others and community values, while at the same time operating in market conditions. Social entrepreneurship and community entrepreneurship (SCE) hold the promise to catalyze such transitions, as they combine bottom-up social initiatives with a focus on financially viable business models. SCE requires a facilitating ecosystem in order to be able to fully realize its potential. As yet it is unclear in which way the entrepreneurial ecosystem for social and community entrepreneurship facilitates or hinders the flourishing and scaling of such entrepreneurship. It is also unclear how exactly entrepreneurs and stakeholders influence their ecosystem to become more facilitative. This research programme addresses these questions. Conceptually it integrates entrepreneurial ecosystem frameworks with upcoming theories on civic wealth creation, collaborative governance, participative learning and collective action frameworks.This multidisciplinary research project capitalizes on a unique consortium: the Dutch City Deal ‘Impact Ondernemen’. In this collaborative research, we enhance and expand current data collection efforts and adopt a living-lab setting centered on nine local and regional cases for collaborative learning through experimenting with innovative financial and business models. We develop meaningful, participatory design and evaluation methods and state-of-the-art digital tools to increase the effectiveness of impact measurement and management. Educational modules for professionals are developed to boost the abovementioned transition. The project’s learnings on mechanisms and processes can easily be adapted and translated to a broad range of impact areas.
Een bottom-up-initiatief is een project dat niet vanuit de overheid of instellingen (top) wordt gestart maar vanuit burgers of eindgebruikers (bottom). We kijken in dit onderzoek naar theorieën die de bottom-up-aanpak ondersteunen. Ook doen we aanbevelingen om bottom-up initiatieven beter en sneller te laten verlopen.Doel Het doel van dit onderzoek is om nieuwe theoretische inzichten en strategieën te ontwikkelen voor stedelijke gebiedsontwikkeling. Hierbij is een sterke focus op de bottom-up aanpak. Dit houdt in dat er gekeken wordt naar initiatieven en ideeën van gebruikers of burgers (bottom) in plaats van de plannen van de overheid of instellingen (top). De bottom-up aanpak heeft veel toegevoegde waarde, maar initiatiefnemers ervaren nog veel belemmeringen. Dit onderzoek wil bijdragen aan het verminderen van die belemmeringen. Resultaten Dit onderzoek loopt. Na afloop vind je hier een samenvatting van de resultaten. Looptijd 01 september 2017 - 01 september 2021 Aanpak Achter bottom-up processen in gebiedsontwikkeling zit nu vaak weinig theorie. Het zijn intuïtieve, trial-and-error processen. Eindgebruikers en burgers werken samen met professionele partijen maar dit is nu nog niet echt gestroomlijnd. Daarom kijken we hoe partijen samenwerken en waar verbeteringen mogelijk zijn. Deze kennis gebruiken we om een theoretische en wetenschappelijke basis voor bottom-up gebiedsontwikkeling te leggen. Hierin komt naar voren welke factoren gaan bepalen of een project succesvol zal zijn. Met deze inzichten kunnen bijvoorbeeld nieuwe strategieën ontwikkeld worden, die een combinatie kunnen zijn tussen een bottom-up en een top-down aanpak.
DISTENDER will provide integrated strategies by building a methodological framework that guide the integration of climate change(CC) adaptation and mitigation strategies through participatory approaches in ways that respond to the impacts and risks of climatechange (CC), supported by quantitative and qualitative analysis that facilitates the understanding of interactions, synergies and tradeoffs.Holistic approaches to mitigation and adaptation must be tailored to the context-specific situation and this requires a flexibleand participatory planning process to ensure legitimate and salient action, carried out by all important stakeholders. DISTENDER willdevelop a set of multi-driver qualitative and quantitative socio-economic-climate scenarios through a facilitated participatory processthat integrates bottom-up knowledge and locally-relevant drivers with top-down information from the global European SharedSocioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) and downscaled Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) from IPCC. A cross-sectorial andmulti-scale impact assessment modelling toolkit will be developed to analyse the complex interactions over multiple sectors,including an economic evaluation framework. The economic impact of the different efforts will be analyse, including damage claimsettlement and how do sectoral activity patterns change under various scenarios considering indirect and cascading effects. It is aninnovative project combining three key concepts: cross-scale, integration/harmonization and robustness checking. DISTENDER willfollow a pragmatic approach applying methodologies and toolkits across a range of European case studies (six core case studies andfive followers) that reflect a cross-section of the challenges posed by CC adaptation and mitigation. The knowledge generated byDISTENDER will be offered by a Decision Support System (DSS) which will include guidelines, manuals, easy-to-use tools andexperiences from the application of the cases studies.
