How can transport and land-use transitions in urban regions be understood and supported? This question is increasingly relevant for researchers and policy makers alike given the growing urgency of sustainability issues confronting cities and the limited improvements can be observed despite continued policy attention, for example Transit-oriented development policies. To tackle this question, this thesis draws on theories and concepts from transition studies. This has led to a richer conceptualisation of transitions and the extent to which policy makers can actively influence them. Transport and land-use transitions can be seen as resulting from the interaction between established and novel structures and practices and exogenous developments. In historic case studies carried out in Munich and Zürich, we see that in transitions that have taken place troubles, or difficulties that people experience in their daily lives, play an important role in focusing political debates. In the process of reaching consensus regarding problems and solutions, interest groups, coalition building and both implicit and explicit societal rules open to conflict and supportive of its resolution play a pivotal role. To aid in supporting transition attempts, a reflexive planning approach has been developed and tested in the region of Amsterdam. The breadth of the focus in this approach in terms of developments considered and actors involved resulted in potential solutions that differed from traditional policy in terms of innovativeness and the extent of support for them.
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This dissertation focuses on how supportive neighbourhood structures for children and their families can be fostered. Supportive structures can positively influence social support for parents, and have positive outcomes, such as increased social competences, for children. Since the 90s there has been increasing attention for the role of communities for supporting families in neighbourhoods. Social work (SW) professionals at schools, playgrounds, community centres, and other community members (e.g. volunteers, other parents, grandparents) are seen as important partners to foster these social supportive structures in neighbourhoods. However, in informal urban settings, like the neighbourhood, this role is challenging. Knowledge about the role in and responsibilities for fostering these structures is lacking, but is important for the development of these supportive structures for families. Five consecutive studies were conducted to gain a better understanding of what is needed to foster supportive structures in neighbourhoods in order to improve the outcomes for children and their families.
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The book is concerned with narrative in digital media that changes according to user input—Interactive Digital Narrative (IDN). It provides a broad overview of current issues and future directions in this multi-disciplinary field that includes humanities-based and computational perspectives. It assembles the voices of leading researchers and practitioners like Janet Murray, Marie-Laure Ryan, Scott Rettberg and Martin Rieser. In three sections, it covers history, theoretical perspectives and varieties of practice including narrative game design, with a special focus on changes in the power relationship between audience and author enabled by interactivity. After discussing the historical development of diverse forms, the book presents theoretical standpoints including a semiotic perspective, a proposal for a specific theoretical framework and an inquiry into the role of artificial intelligence. Finally, it analyses varieties of current practice from digital poetry to location-based applications, artistic experiments and expanded remakes of older narrative game titles.
This PD project explores alternative approaches to audiovisual technologies in art and creative practices by reimagining and reinventing marginalized and decommodified devices through Media Archaeology, artistic experimentation, and hands-on technical reinvention. This research employs Media Archaeology to uncover “obsolete” yet artistically relevant technologies and hands-on technical reinvention to adapt these tools for contemporary creative practices. It seeks to develop experimental self-built devices that critically engage with media materiality, exploring alternative aesthetic possibilities through practice-based investigations into the cultural and historical dimensions of media technologies. These developments provide artists with new creative possibilities beyond mainstream commercial standardized tools and infrastructures. A key component of this project is collaborative innovation with artist-run analog film communities, such as Filmwerkplaats. By fostering knowledge exchange and artistic experimentation, this research ensures that reinvented tools remain relevant to both analog film communities and contemporary media art practices. The intended outcomes directly benefit two key groups: • Artist-run film labs gain sustainable methods for evolving their practices, reducing dependence on scarce, out-of-production equipment. • Digital-native artists are introduced to alternative methods for engaging with analog processes and media materiality, expanding their creative toolkit. This collaboration also strengthens art and design education by embedding alternative technological perspectives and research methodologies into curricula, providing students and practitioners with resourceful, sustainable approaches to working with technology. It advocates for a more diverse educational paradigm that incorporates media-technological history and critical reflection on the ideologies of linear technological progress. Ultimately, this research fosters critical discourse on media culture, challenges the dominance of corporate proprietary systems, and promotes innovation, redefining the relationship between creativity and technology.
In summer 2020, part of a quay wall in Amsterdam collapsed, and in 2010, construction for a parking lot in Amsterdam was hindered by old sewage lines. New sustainable electric systems are being built on top of the foundations of old windmills, in places where industry thrived in the 19th century. All these examples have one point in common: They involve largely unknown and invisible historic underground structures in a densely built historic city. We argue that truly circular building practices in old cities require smart interfaces that allow the circular use of data from the past when planning the future. The continuous use and reuse of the same plots of land stands in stark contrast with the discontinuity and dispersed nature of project-oriented information. Construction and data technology improves, but information about the past is incomplete. We have to break through the lack of historic continuity of data to make building practices truly circular. Future-oriented construction in Amsterdam requires historic knowledge and continuous documentation of interventions and findings over time. A web portal will bring together a range of diverse public and private, professional and citizen stakeholders, each with their own interests and needs. Two creative industry stakeholders, Yume interactive (Yume) and publisher NAI010, come together to work with a major engineering office (Witteveen+Bos), the AMS Institute, the office of Engineering of the Municipality of Amsterdam, UNESCO NL and two faculties of Delft University of Technology (Architecture and Computer Science) to inventorize historic datasets on the Amsterdam underground. The team will connect all the relevant stakeholders to develop a pilot methodology and a web portal connecting historic data sets for use in contemporary and future design. A book publication will document the process and outcomes, highlighting the need for circular practices that tie past, present and future.
