For children with asthma, physical activity (PA) can decrease the impact of their asthma. Thus far, effective PA promoting interventions for this group are lacking. To develop an intervention, the current study aimed to identify perspectives on physical activity of children with asthma, their parents, and healthcare providers. Children with asthma between 8 and 12 years old (n = 25), their parents (n = 17), and healthcare providers (n = 21) participated in a concept mapping study. Participants generated ideas that would help children with asthma to become more physically active. They sorted all ideas and rated their importance on influencing PA. Clusters were created with multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis. The researchers labelled the clusters as either environmental or personal factors using the Physical Activity for people with a Disability model. In total, 26 unique clusters were generated, of which 17 were labelled as environmental factors and 9 as personal factors. Important factors that promote physical activity in children with asthma according to all participating groups are asthma control, stimulating environments and relatives, and adapted facilities suiting the child’s needs. These factors, supported by the future users, enable developing an intervention that helps healthcare providers to promote PA in children with asthma.
An increasing amount of cities are trying to increase civic engagement by using digital tools and platforms which gather data in a variety of ways on relevant topics within the city. Tools and platforms that focus on handling easy to fix issues on a local scale such as broken streetlights have been successfully implemented in cities already. In this paper a case study is described which aimed to retrieve data from citizens about a more complex local challenge in a neighborhood in Amsterdam. Furthermore, it has been investigated how the municipality could use the collected data as input for policy making. By making a participatory mapping mobile phone application available in a neighborhood, data was collected about places in the neighborhoods public space in which the citizens took pride and places that needed attention. This data is to be used as input for the area plan of the neighborhood. A first case-study with the application showed that even though there was low participation from the neighborhood, due to the high quality of the added data it was still valuable for the municipality.
Online platforms for collecting local memories are often claimed to be a driving force of empowerment for individuals, groups and the community as a whole. Long term online participation especially plays a key role in the claims for empowerment on group and community level. However, the present research on local memory websites lacks empirical data to substantiate these claims and leaves aside questions about their wider presence, the way they are organized and how their particular structure and affordances enable online participation. To address these issues, we develop six analytical dimensions in order to analyse a comprehensive number of such sites, examining in particular their organizational and online participatory features. On the basis of a cross-sectional design including 80 cases from the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and various other countries, we show three types of websites can be distinguished, namely residential, institutional and associational. In addition, we find that the expectancy of online participation is maximized not only by organizational aspects that fosterautonomy, but also by characteristics that enlarge the sense of authenticity. Our findings also show a limited number of cases with a considerable level of online participation, which offers the empirical data for analysis in terms of empowerment on group and community level.Nevertheless, we conclude that in most cases the organizational characteristics and participatory affordances of the websites are not sufficient to produce empowerment on all levels.
Om de ambities te behalen zoals geformuleerd in de Sustainable Development Goals, is transdisciplinaire samenwerking nodig tussen overheden, bedrijfsleven, burgers en wetenschap. Dit vraagt om multi-stakeholderbenaderingen waarin leren van en met elkaar centraal staat. Dit onderzoeksvoorstel is een vertaalslag van bovenstaande ambitie zoals geformuleerd in samenwerking met hoger onderwijs partners in Bandung, Indonesië. Het Living Lab Upper Citarum biedt een context om onderzoek te doen binnen een bestaand Living Lab gekenmerkt door de multi-stakeholder setting en de complexiteit van duurzaam beheer van natuurlijke hulpbronnen. Het onderzoek beoogt inzicht te verkrijgen in essentiële ‘21st century skills’ voor deelnemers met faciliterende rollen in een Living Lab. De onderzoeksstrategie wil een bijdrage leveren aan de duurzaamheidsagenda van Living Labs met het ontwerpen, het ervaren, reflecteren en documenteren van praktische interventies in de lokale context. De keuze voor werken op locatie is een eerste benadering in het creëren van een realistische leerervaring voor Living Lab facilitators met diverse achtergronden en valt daarmee te beschrijven als ‘learning by doing’. De algemene onderzoekvraag is als volgt geformuleerd: Which contemporary skills and capabilities are present and which need to be developed to establish a widely shared mind set for trans- or interdisciplinary strategies so that communities and institutions in a Living Lab configuration increase their performance? De onderzoeksstrategie krijgt vorm in een ‘21st century skills exploration’ die een experimentele leerruimte biedt aan medewerkers van diverse instituten en (overheids-)organisaties die actief zijn in het Living Lab om kennis te maken met de creatieve methodes voor publieke participatie. Dit vindt vooral plaats in interactie met lokale gemeenschappen met nadruk op creatieve methodes zoals een poetry route, participatory mapping en film. Na presentatie op locatie worden de resultaten gepresenteerd tijdens een mini-symposium in Bandung.