The childhood obesity epidemic has persisted for over three decades, which has presented serious social, economic and health consequences worldwide. For researchers and policy makers alike, cycling has been a promising focus over recent years for developing long-term physically active lifestyles in urban environments, in addition to contributing to the global quest to combat climate change. Promoting cycling thus presents a win-win situation not just for individuals' well-being, but for multiple involved sectors such as public health, transport ministry and environmental agencies. For children, cycling promotes exercise engagement, active transport opportunities, motor skill development and social interaction. However, across European cities, there are considerable discrepancies in the uptake of cycling amongst children. To understand and subsequently promote children's cycling behavior, it is crucial that the complex social, physical and policy environment, and their interrelationships, are considered. Therefore, in this perspective article, we adopt the socio-ecological model to gain insight into how children's cycling behavior is shaped at the interpersonal, organizational and community level embedded within city policies, relevant to increase future cycling participation in children. Our perspective is based on a review of cycling policies of two European cities, Amsterdam (Netherlands) and Newcastle (UK), where stark contrasts in children's cycling participation can be observed. Our findings show that cycling policies in Amsterdam have mainly contributed to comprehensive organizational level changes, for example, cycling infrastructure development within the city, whereby these initiatives have made significant progress at the community level where cycling has become part of the “Dutch culture”. Hence, cycling is a more common transportation mode among children in Amsterdam than in Newcastle. In Newcastle, policies primarily focus on organizational or community level changes, and progress has recently been accelerated in response to COVID-19. In addition to differences, we have also identified similar challenges in the two cities, such as the urgency to support uptake of cycling for children with low socio-economic background or challenges related to cultural differences. We also propose a “shared (cycle-)path” for policy makers and researchers as working together is crucial in producing multi-component interventions at a policy level that recognize individual, as well as interpersonal, community and organizational factors.
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In recent years, cycling has emerged as an increasingly important consideration for national and local authorities around the world, primarily because of the public’s growing awareness about its health benefits and greenhouse emissions reduction. In the last decade, transport related policies in Malaysia and particularly in Kuala Lumpur have been seeking to support cycling as a travel mode, yet, cycling levels in Kuala Lumpur remain low and evidence about interventions are mixed. Data from an exploratory case study is used here to understand the transportation system planning and urban growth of Kuala Lumpur and their impact on cycling uptake, ex- amining current status of cycling facilities in KL, evaluating effectiveness of the cycling interventions, and the attitudes of participants of cycling events towards using bicycle. Using a combination of evidences from existing literature, observation referring to the quality and use of the first bicycle pathway in Kuala Lumpur, interviews with city officials and a survey of people’s attitudes towards using bicycle, this exploratory research highlights the challenges that a car dependent city faces in its urban transformation and in promoting cycling, as well as the residents’ motivations and deterrents to use bicycle for commuting.
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A paper about: How a cycling-generation contributes to healthy, safe, and inclusive cities: How children become the centrepiece of research and policy-making. With examples of Tilburg
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Beschrijving hoe volwassenen die gedialyseerd worden fietsen tijdens hun dialyse ervaren, zodat potentiële bevorderende en belemmerende factoren konden worden geïdentificeerd.
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The Netherlands is known globally for its widespread use of bicycles and some call it a “cycling nation”. Indeed, many Dutch inhabitants own a bike and cycle frequently. Numbers show that 84% of the Dutch inhabitants from age 4 years and older own a bike. Those owners have an average of 1.3 bikes per person. This results in 18 million bikes in the Netherlands and 13.5 million bike owners.6 The Dutch use their bike as a means of transportation, but also for sports and exercise. Bike-use fits well in an active lifestyle and it is highly plausible that cycling is responsible for a large part of the daily physical activity in Dutch youth. It is estimated that Dutch people have on average a 6 months longer life expectancy attributable to bicycle use.7 It seems that the nation itself is well shaped to cycle: no large mountains, only a few small hills, and an extensive layout of cycle paths and routes in every city and village. In many urban areas separate cycle paths are very common. Our results show that many Dutch children use the bike as their way of transportation. It was demonstrated that active transportation is responsible for a large part of schoolrelated physical activity in Dutch youth.8 80% of 12-17 year-old children cycled three or more days to or from school/work.9 This resulted in an ‘A’ for the indicator active transportation (walking is included in the grade as well). Active transport is associated with increased total physical activity among youth.10,11 Also evidence is reported for an association between active transport and a healthier body composition and healthier level of cardiorespiratory fitness among youth. Although Dutch children accumulate a lot of daily physical activity through cycling, it is not enough to meet the current national physical activity guidelines of 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per day. Even though cycling is an important component to the amount of daily physical activity, Dutch youth are not cycling to health
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This article addresses European energy policy through conventional and transformative sustainability approaches. The reader is guided towards an understanding of different renewable energy options that are available on the policy making table and how the policy choices have been shaped. In arguing that so far, European energy policy has been guided by conventional sustainability framework that focuses on eco-efficiency and ‘energy mix’, this article proposes greater reliance on circular economy (CE) and Cradle to Cradle (C2C) frameworks. Exploring the current European reliance on biofuels as a source of renewable energy, this article will provide recommendations for transition to transformative energy choices. http://dx.doi.org/10.13135/2384-8677/2331 https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkopnina/
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A welcome policy can be embedded in a municipal authority organisation in a number of different ways. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses. To be effective, the local policy makers must be clear on how they hope to make use of the welcome policy and how this will benefit or suffer from different organisational structures. No one ‘ideal’ structure will ‘fit’ all municipal situations in Europe. However, to be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the organisational structure that most closely resembles the local situation can increase the chances of successful policy implementation.
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Energy policies are vital tools used by countries to regulate economic and social development as well as guarantee national security. To address the problems of fragmented policy objectives, conflicting tools, and overlapping initiatives, the internal logic and evolutionary trends of energy policies must be explored using the policy content. This study uses 38,277 energy policies as a database and summarizes the four energy policy objectives: clean, low-carbon, safe, and efficient. Using the TextCNN model to classify and deconstruct policies, the LDA + Word2vec theme conceptualization and similarity calculations were compared with the EISMD evolution framework to determine the energy policy theme evolution path. Results indicate that the density of energy policies has increased. Policies have become more comprehensive, barriers between objectives have gradually been broken, and low-carbon objectives have been strengthened. The evolution types are more diversified, evolution paths are more complicated, and the evolution types are often related to technology, industry, and market maturity. Traditional energy themes evolve through inheritance and merger; emerging technology and industry themes evolve through innovation, inheritance, and splitting. Moreover, this study provides a replicable analytical framework for the study of policy evolution in other sectors and evidence for optimizing energy policy design
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In January 2017, relations between Greece and Turkey were under severe strain when warships from both sides engaged in a brief standoff near a pair of uninhabited Greek ‘islets’ in the Aegean, whose sovereignty is disputed by Turkey. Theoretically informed by the literature of foreign policy analysis, we examine how the Greek diplomats, military officers and political analysts interpreted Turkey’s behaviour at that particular time. The article considers the following research question: which factors, from a Greek point of view, explain Turkey’s foreign policy in the Aegean in January 2017? Our theoretical expectation is that, in the aftermath of the coup attempt in Turkey, Greek diplomats, military officers and political analysts would ascribe domestic calculations into Turkey’s activities. We employed Q- methodology to uncover socially shared perspectives on this topic. Based on our findings, we uncovered two viewpoints: (1) Turkey’s diachronic strategy in the Aegean and (2) the strongman style. According to the former and most widely shared viewpoint, a consistent ‘rationalist’ strategy to change the status quo in the Aegean explains Turkey’s behaviour. According to the second one, the belief system of Turkey’s leadership legitimises the use of force in the conduct of foreign policy.
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