from the article: Abstract Based on a review of recent literature, this paper addresses the question of how urban planners can steer urban environmental quality, given the fact that it is multidimensional in character, is assessed largely in subjective terms and varies across time. The paper explores three questions that are at the core of planning and designing cities: ‘quality of what?’, ‘quality for whom?’ and ‘quality at what time?’ and illustrates the dilemmas that urban planners face in answering these questions. The three questions provide a novel framework that offers urban planners perspectives for action in finding their way out of the dilemmas identified. Rather than further detailing the exact nature of urban quality, these perspectives call for an approach to urban planning that is integrated, participative and adaptive. ; ; sustainable urban development; trade-offs; quality dimensions
Leisure travelling is known to be a contributor to visitors’ well-being and quality of life yet only little is known about the influence of tourism on the destination residents’ quality of life. Given rising imbalances and perceived conflicts of use between visitors and residents particularly in an urban context, research interest in residents’ perspectives have increased and new measures such as the tourism acceptance score have been developed to measure perceived tourism impacts over time. While tourism intensity has been proposed to be an indicator for low tourism acceptance and decreasing quality of life, little empirical evidence is existing. This study examines the relationship between tourism acceptance and perceived quality of life and the moderating role of tourism intensity. The data base used consisted of representative samples in 11 German cities. Results demonstrate a positive relationship between personal tourism acceptance and the residents’ quality of live. This relationship is moderated by the tourism intensity and is generally stronger in cities with higher tourism intensity.
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-Chatbots are being used at an increasing rate, for instance, for simple Q&A conversations, flight reservations, online shopping and news aggregation. However, users expect to be served as effective and reliable as they were with human-based systems and are unforgiving once the system fails to understand them, engage them or show them human empathy. This problem is more prominent when the technology is used in domains such as health care, where empathy and the ability to give emotional support are most essential during interaction with the person. Empathy, however, is a unique human skill, and conversational agents such as chatbots cannot yet express empathy in nuanced ways to account for its complex nature and quality. This project focuses on designing emotionally supportive conversational agents within the mental health domain. We take a user-centered co-creation approach to focus on the mental health problems of sexual assault victims. This group is chosen specifically, because of the high rate of the sexual assault incidents and its lifetime destructive effects on the victim and the fact that although early intervention and treatment is necessary to prevent future mental health problems, these incidents largely go unreported due to the stigma attached to sexual assault. On the other hand, research shows that people feel more comfortable talking to chatbots about intimate topics since they feel no fear of judgment. We think an emotionally supportive and empathic chatbot specifically designed to encourage self-disclosure among sexual assault victims could help those who remain silent in fear of negative evaluation and empower them to process their experience better and take the necessary steps towards treatment early on.
In our increasingly global society, organizations face many opportunities in innovation, improved productivity and easy access to talent. At the same time, one of the greatest challenges, businesses experience nowadays, is the importance of social and/or human capital for their effectiveness and success (Backhaus and Tikoo, 2004; Mosley, 2007; Theurer et al., 2018; Tumasjan et al., 2020). High-quality employees are crucial to the competitive strength of an organization in the global economy, as these employees have a major influence on organizational reputation (Dowling at al., 2012). An important question is how, under these global circumstances, organizations and companies in the Netherlands can best be stimulated to attract and preserve social capital.Several studies have suggested the scarcity of talent and the crucial importance of gaining competitive advantage with recruitment communication to find the fit between personal and fundamental organizational characteristics and values for employees (Cable and Edwards, 2004; Bhatnagar and Srivastava, 2008; ManPower Group, 2014; European Communication Monitor (ECM), 2018). In order to become an employer of choice, organizations have to not only stand out from the crowd during the recruitment process but work on developing loyalty and a culture of trust in their relationship with employees (ECM, 2018). Employer Branding focuses on the process of promoting an organization, as the “employer of choice” to a desired target group, which an organization aims to attract and retain. This process encompasses building an identifiable and unique employer identity or, more specifically, “the promotion of a unique and attractive image” as an employer (Backhaus 2004, p. 117; Backhaus and Tikoo 2004, p. 502).One of the biggest challenges in the North of the Netherlands at the moment is the urgent need for qualified labor in the IT, energy and healthcare sectors and the excess supply of international graduates who are able to find a job in the North of the Netherlands (AWVN, 2019). Talent development, as part of the regional labor market and education policy, has been an important part of government programs and strategies in the region (VNO-NCW Noord, 2018). For instance, North Netherlands Alliance (SNN) signed a Northern Innovation Agenda for the 2014-2020 period. SNN encourages, facilitates and connects ambitions focused on the development of the Northern Netherlands. Also, the Social Economic council North Netherlands issued an advice on the labour market in the North Netherlands (SER Noord Nederland, 2017). Knowledge institutions also contribute through employability programs. Another example is the Regional Talent Agreement (Talent Akkoord) framework issued by the Groningen educational institutions, employers and employees’ organizations and regional authorities in which they jointly commit to recruiting, training, retaining and developing talent for the Northern labor market. Most of the hires with a maximum of five year of experience at companies are represented by millennials. To learn what values make an attractive brand for employees in the of the North of the Netherlands, we conducted a first study. When ranking the most important values of corporate culture which matter to young employees, they mention creative freedom, purposeful work, flexibility, work-life balance as well as personal development. Whereas attractive workplace and job security do not matter to such a degree. A positive work environment and a good relationship with colleagues are valued highly (Hein, 2019).To date, as far as we know, no other employer branding studies have been carried out for the North of the Netherlands. Further insight is needed into the role of employer branding as a powerful tool to retain talent in Northern industry in particular.The goal of this study is to provide a detailed analysis of the regional industry in the Northern Netherlands and contribute to: 1) the scientific body of knowledge about whether and how employer branding can strengthen the attractiveness of a regional industry in the labor market; 2) the application of this knowledge and insights by companies and governments in local policy development in the North of the Netherlands.
The Netherlands is facinggreat challenges to achieve (inter)national climate mitigation objectives inlimited time, budget and space. Drastic innovative measures such as floatingsolar parks are high on political agendas and are entering our water systems.The clear advantages of floating solar (multifunctional use of space) led to afast deployment of renewable energy sources without extensive research toadequately evaluate the impacts on our environment. Acquisition ofresearch data with holistic monitoring methods are urgently needed in order toprevent disinvestments.In this project 10 SMEs with different expertiseand technologies are joining efforts with researchers and four public parties(and 12 indirectly involved) to answer the research question “Which monitoringtechnologies and intelligent data interpretation techniques are requiredto be able to conduct comprehensive, efficient and cost effective monitoring ofthe impacts of floating solar panels in their surroundings?"The outputs after a two-yearproject will play a significant and indispensable role in making Green EnergyResources Greener. Specific output includes a detailed inventory of existingprojects, monitoring method for collection/analysis of datasets(parameters/footage on climate, water quality, ecology) on the effects offloating solar panels on the environment using heterogeneous unmanned robots,workshops with public & private partners and stakeholders,scientific and technical papers and update of national guidelines for optimizingthe relationship between solar panels and the surrounding environment. Projectresults have a global interest and the consortium partners aim at upscaling forthe international market. This project will enrich the involved partners withtheir practical knowledge, and SMEs will be equipped with the new technologiesto be at the forefront and benefit from the increasing floating solar marketopportunities. This project will also make a significant contribution tovarious educational curricula in universities of applied sciences.The Netherlands is facinggreat challenges to achieve (inter)national climate mitigation objectives inlimited time, budget and space. Drastic innovative measures such as floatingsolar parks are high on political agendas and are entering our water systems.The clear advantages of floating solar (multifunctional use of space) led to afast deployment of renewable energy sources without extensive research toadequately evaluate the impacts on our environment. Acquisition ofresearch data with holistic monitoring methods are urgently needed in order toprevent disinvestments.In this project 10 SMEs with different expertiseand technologies are joining efforts with researchers and four public parties(and 12 indirectly involved) to answer the research question “Which monitoringtechnologies and intelligent data interpretation techniques are requiredto be able to conduct comprehensive, efficient and cost effective monitoring ofthe impacts of floating solar panels in their surroundings?"The outputs after a two-yearproject will play a significant and indispensable role in making Green EnergyResources Greener. Specific output includes a detailed inventory of existingprojects, monitoring method for collection/analysis of datasets(parameters/footage on climate, water quality, ecology) on the effects offloating solar panels on the environment using heterogeneous unmanned robots,workshops with public & private partners and stakeholders,scientific and technical papers and update of national guidelines for optimizingthe relationship between solar panels and the surrounding environment. Projectresults have a global interest and the consortium partners aim at upscaling forthe international market. This project will enrich the involved partners withtheir practical knowledge, and SMEs will be equipped with the new technologiesto be at the forefront and benefit from the increasing floating solar marketopportunities. This project will also make a significant contribution tovarious educational curricula in universities of applied sciences.
