The emergence of organic planning practices in the Netherlands introduces new, non-conventional, local actors initiating bottom-up urban developments. Dissatisfied with conventional practices and using opportunities during the 2008 financial crisis, these actors aim to create social value, thus challenging prevailing institutions. Intrigued by such actors becoming more present and influential in urban planning and development processes, we aim to identify who they are. We use social entrepreneurship and niche formation theories to analyse and identify three types of social entrepreneurs. The first are early pioneers, adopting roles of a developer and end-user, but lacking position and power to realize goals. Secondly, by acting as boundary spanners and niche entrepreneurs, they evolve towards consolidated third sector organizations in the position to realize developments. A third type are intermediate agents facilitating developments as boundary spanners and policy entrepreneurs, without pursuing urban development themselves but aiming at realizing broader policy goals. Our general typology provides a rich picture of actors involved in bottom-up urban developments by applying theories from domains of innovation management and business transition management to urban planning and development studies. It shows that the social entrepreneurs in bottom-up urban development can be considered the result of social innovation, but this social innovation is set within a neoliberal context, and in many cases passively or actively conditioned by states and markets.
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Increasingly, discussions on sustainability, in particular in relation to energy transition, are finding their way to the regional and local political arena. Although for analysing transition pathways on these sub-national scales, conceptual frameworks such as the multi-level perspective may be helpful, some issues remain relatively unaddressed: the relevance of citizens and their social networks and the precise interactions between place, the local context, and external conditions. This paper aims to better understand energy transition processes on the local and regional scale by analysing the case of the Dutch island of Ameland. Since 2006, Ameland has been on a sustainability pathway towards self-sufficiency, in particular in terms of reducing CO2 emissions. In this case study, we conducted in-depth empirical analysis, using a mixed-methods approach, including document analysis and ethnographic techniques. In a five-stage development process, a combination of place-related niche development, regime developments, and the involvement of citizens have created a protective space for several socio-technological innovations to emerge. The unique combination of specific local conditions, in particular political and cultural, and external influences, national policy, and ‘enlightened’ companies have shaped ideal conditions for Ameland to become an inspiring example of innovation in regional transition processes.
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Amsterdam is known to be a cosmopolitan and multicultural city where newly arrived migrants find opportunities to test business ideas. Behind every business idea, there are people supporting the entrepreneurs’ initiatives and providing feedback. This chapter examines the role of those people in the process of refining business ideas being implemented in the city. The literature about the role of connections in business highlights the value of networks’ diversity for creativity and innovation. I argue that both diverse and similar business connections have their specific role in the adaptation of a business idea to Amsterdam’s context. The specific role was analyzed from 509 business connections in 41 businesses. Qualitative information and ego network maps were collected to measure similarity indexes in: place of residence, nationality, and level of education of entrepreneurs. The results show that migrant businesses in the multicultural market of Amsterdam rely on diverse and similar connections acting together: similar ones as a safety net where ideas develop and diverse ones where ideas are quickly tested. Migrant entrepreneurs actively use their business connections to carve a niche, whether strengthening relations with migrant-based markets or moving toward the high-end segments of the local market.
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Neoliberal discourse often conceptualizes nature in relation to its market utility and economic development. This article will address the role of metaphors in shaping neoliberal discourse in business education. The aim of this article is to reveal reasoning patterns about environmental problems and economic development in students of sustainable business minor. The case study described in this article involves business students at The Hague University in The Netherlands. This case study aimed to explore a shift in student understanding of environmental problems and economic development before and after the intervention. The results suggest that critical curriculum can inform students about the alternative conceptions as well as instruct them about potential solutions to the sustainability challenges. The article culminates with the argument that without goal-oriented education for sustainability; neoliberal education may not permit transcendence from unsustainable practices. https://doi.org/10.3390/su6117496 https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkopnina/
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This paper describes prototypes for transition pathways towards inclusive, sustainable development for seven regions in five European Countries. The approach for developing transition pathways was based on three theoretical building blocks. First, the ABCD-Roadmap that outlines the various steps to be developed in the design process of the transition pathway, secondly, the Socio-Ecological-System framework was used to describe the current situation and analyze the interactions within the system and lastly, the X-curve model provided guidance in categorizing activities and policies that should be adapted, developed new or stopped. The international team showed how transition pathways for sustainable development can be developed in different contexts and scale levels, all over Europe. The resulting advice can be helpful to professionals active in regional development, on municipal, provincial, national, or European level.
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This conceptual paper develops and justifies a pro-active, design-driven approach to sustainable destination development. Using insights from design science, it helps explain the limited practical usability of concepts such as the Tourism Area Life Cycle, by noting that these often focus on an aggregated ‘topological’ level of destination design, while a focus on experiences and product development on a ‘typological’ and ‘morphological’ level is key to constitute change. The ‘Tourism Destination Design Roadmap’ is introduced, its potential to scrutinise ‘visitor flows’ is explored as well as ways in which it can contribute to developing desirable qualities in a destination, while minimising negative impacts. The paper concludes by highlighting its conceptual contribution and identifying directions for future research.
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BACKGROUND: Rapid technological development has been opening new possibilities for children with disabilities. In particular, robots can enable and create new opportunities in therapy, rehabilitation, education, or leisure. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this article is to share experiences, challenges and learned lessons by the authors, all of them with experience conducting research in the field of robotics for children with disabilities, and to propose future directions for research and development. METHODS: The article is the result of several consensus meetings to establish future research priorities in this field. CONCLUSIONS: This article outlines a research agenda for the future of robotics in childcare and supports the establishment of R4C – Robots for Children, a network of experts aimed at sharing ideas, promoting innovative research, and developing good practices on the use of robots for children with disabilities. RESULTS: Robots have a huge potential to support children with disabilities: they can play the role of a play buddy, of a mediator when interacting with other children or adults, they can promote social interaction, and transfer children from the role of a spectator of the surrounding world to the role of an active participant. To fulfill their potential, robots have to be “smart”, stable and reliable, easy to use and program, and give the just-right amount of support adapted to the needs of the child. Interdisciplinary collaboration combined with user centered design is necessary to make robotic applications successful. Furthermore, real-life contexts to test and implement robotic interventions are essential to refine them according to real needs.
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This paper is a case report of why and how CDIO became a shared framework for Community Service Engineering (CSE) education. CSE can be defined as the engineering of products, product-service combinations or services that fulfill well-being and health needs in the social domain, specifically for vulnerable groups in society. The vulnerable groups in society are growing, while fewer people work in health care. Finding technical, interdisciplinary solutions for their unmet needs is the territory of the Community Service Engineer. These unmet needs arise in local niche markets as well as in the global community, which makes it an interesting area for innovation and collaboration in an international setting. Therefore, five universities from Belgium, Portugal, the Netherlands, and Sweden decided to work together as hubs in local innovation networks to create international innovation power. The aim of the project is to develop education on undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate levels. The partners are not aiming at a joined degree or diploma, but offer a shared short track blended course (3EC), which each partner can supplement with their own courses or projects (up to 30EC). The blended curriculum in CSE is based on design thinking principles. Resources are shared and collaboration between students and staff is organized at different levels. CDIO was chosen as the common framework and the syllabus 2.0 was used as a blueprint for the CSE learning goals in each university. CSE projects are characterized by an interdisciplinary, human centered approach leading to inter-faculty collaboration. At the university of Porto, EUR-ACE was already used as the engineering education framework, so a translation table was used to facilitate common development. Even though Thomas More and KU Leuven are no CDIO partner, their choice for design thinking as the leading method in the post-Masters pilot course insured a good fit with the CDIO syllabus. At this point University West is applying for CDIO and they are yet to discover what the adaptation means for their programs and their emerging CSE initiatives. CDIO proved to fit well to in the authentic open innovation network context in which engineering students actively do CSE projects. CDIO became the common language and means to continuously improve the quality of the CSE curriculum.
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Transitions can be facilitated through collective networked action, moving from coordinated learning towards more forceful interventions. This coordinated effort is challenging in more extended learning and innovation networks. Creating and maintaining an overview of activities within such a network and connecting them to a common cause can be a powerful approach. A tool named MissionMapping was developed in an iterative process in applied co-design research. With the tool, we intend to allow for a more holistic perspective when navigating the activities of the network related to the transition by working towards more of an overview of the questions and activities within the network. This article describes three cases in which MissionMapping was applied to facilitate synergy in networks of people collaborating on societal challenges. A cross-case analysis was done to develop insights on how MissionMapping supports the synergy of goals and projects within societal challenges. MissionMapping allows participants to build their mission landscape. They combine individual activities to create shared territories. The tool was developed in an iterative process. In the three cases, different versions of the tool were used during live workshops. After the cases and applying MissionMapping in other cases, the tool results in a flexible set that can be adapted to different purposes for a workshop and adopted by others who like to apply the tool. The article presents insights resulting from a cross-case analysis of applying the MissionMapping tool. One insight was that it is difficult to keep track of adjustments over time when the network dynamics change. Additionally, we found that while preparing the workshop, adjusting and printing the tiles cost time and are not easily transferable to others who might be interested in applying the tool. Navigating the mission resulted in increased enthusiasm for the topic at hand. The form factor also seems to contribute to a sense of agency. However, the increased agency does not automatically transfer to actions, as organisations are often inflexible. MissionMapping stimulates the development of a shared language through the landscape metaphor. This helps to cross boundaries in multidisciplinary networks. Capturing and transferring insights visually and digitally was quite challenging. Further exploration is needed to find an effective method. It is difficult to capture the impact of the MissionMaps and requires monitoring over time. For now, we conclude that it benefits collaboration, creates overviews in complex networks, and may fuel idea generation.
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This thesis focuses on topics such as preterm birth, variation in gross motor development, factors that influence (premature) infant gross motor development, and parental beliefs and practices. By gaining insight into these topics, this thesis aims to contribute to clinical decision-making of paediatric physiotherapists together with parents, and with that shape early intervention.
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