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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Vacant land can provide social and ecological benefits to cities as they are informally used by people and spontaneously populated by animals and plant-life. However, planners and policy makers often frame vacant land as ‘empty’, ‘blank’ spaces, making it difficult to acknowledge informal and more-than-human shaping of these places. This paper demonstrates how a reconceptualization of vacant land through a relational lens enables the inclusion of informal and more-than-human placemaking in planning policy. Analysing the recent Scottish planning policy debate on vacant land through the analysis of policy documents and key informant interviews, we demonstrate that the inclusion of informal and more-than-human placemaking in the Scottish planning policy is fostered by growing recognition of concepts such as urban biodiversity, but hindered by persistent nature-culture divisions. Waymarkers for future policy making are, firstly, strengthening the presence of informal and more-than-human actors in policy debates by seeking representatives who can speak on their behalf and, secondly, supporting new placemaking traditions specifically for vacant land that are incremental and collaborative.
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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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The majority of Dutch peatlands are drained and used intensively as grasslands for dairy farming. This delivers high productivity but causes severe damage to the provisioning of ecosystem services. Peatland rewetting is the best way to reverse the damage, but high water levels do not fit with intensive dairy production. Paludiculture, defined as crop production under wet conditions, provides viable land use alternatives, but these alternatives are rarely compared to conventional drainage-based systems. Here, we compare ecosystem services of six theoretical production systems on peatland following a gradient of low, medium, and high water levels. This includes conventional and organic drainage-based dairy farming, low-input grasslands for grazing and mowing, and high-input paludiculture systems with reed and Sphagnum cultivation. For each production system, a theoretical 1 ha unit was designed using data from literature. Four aspects of ecosystem services were quantified and monetized, including agricultural productivity, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, water storage, and biodiversity potential. Results show that drainage-based dairy farming systems only support high milk production without any of the other ecosystem services included, even with organic farming practices. Biomass producing paludiculture systems have high ecosystem services value, but do not lead to production values comparable to the present dairy farming. Capitalizing GHG reduction and other ecosystem services from peatland rewetting with carbon credits or other payment schemes would close this production and income gap. However, standard practice to monetize provision of ecosystem service is currently unavailable. Sustainable use of peatlands urges more fundamental changes in land and water management along with the financial and policy support required.
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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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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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Cities all over the world are rethinking their mobility policies in light of environmental and quality of life objectives. As space is one of cities’ scarcest resources, mobility’s spatial footprint is increasingly scrutinized as externality to mitigate. Similar to passenger transport, goods transport is envisioned to shift towards efficient and zero emission mobilities. To achieve an urban logistics system that eliminates inefficiencies and fossil fuels, the logistics sector requires space to unload, cross-dock, consolidate and stock goods closer to their destinations. Such a ‘proximity logistics’ is however at odds with ‘logistics sprawl’, the historic outward migration pattern of logistics facilities. With policies and planning, cities can support the (re)integration of logistics facilities in urban areas to facilitate and enable the shift to an efficient urban logistics system. Logistics still being a largely neglected policy subject in many cities, knowledge on how to approach this (re)integration is hardly available. Therefore, we compare two pioneering cities: Rotterdam and Paris. Both cities have an established track record in advancing urban logistics policies and are spearheading the practice of planning for logistics. Based on interviews and policy analyses, we develop best practices on how to address the integration of urban logistics facilities for cities.
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During the COVID-19 pandemic, the bidirectional relationship between policy and data reliability has been a challenge for researchers of the local municipal health services. Policy decisions on population specific test locations and selective registration of negative test results led to population differences in data quality. This hampered the calculation of reliable population specific infection rates needed to develop proper data driven public health policy. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12508-023-00377-y
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In opdracht van het ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijksrelaties heeft het lectoraat Changing Role of Europe van De Haagse Hogeschool de rol van de Dutch Urban Envoy geëvalueerd. De betekenis, de inzet, het vervolg en de toekomstige invulling van de rol van de Dutch Urban Envoy komen aan bod. Op basis van de inzichten van 37 interviews met 39 betrokken partijen (van het Ministerie van BZK, Nederlandse steden, Europese steden, koepelorganisaties, Europese instellingen en andere ministeries binnen de Rijksoverheid) en deskresearch zijn de volgende conclusies en aanbevelingen geformuleerd.
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Huidige inburgeringscursussen zijn meestal gericht op taal en kennis en houden geen rekening met de complexe inspanningen die migranten moeten leveren om een nieuw bestaan op te bouwen in een vreemde samenleving. Sinds 2002 onderzoekt en ontwikkel ik samen met Vantrood Educational Services methoden voor psychosociale volwassenenonderwijs, toegespitst op een dubbele context benadering: de ontvangende samenleving, evenals de volwassen lerende migrant. In dit Position paper beschrijven we de theoretisch gefundeerde principes van deze effectieve pedagogische aanpak en bespreken we veronderstellingen van volwassenenonderwijs en inburgering om hiermee een constructieve bijdrage te leveren aan de doorontwikkeling van inburgeringscursussen.
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