To profile a better physiognomy of contemporary technocratic logics of planning, this chapter explores the reform of the working processes and organisational structures of the public management bureaucracties in the Amsterdam municipality. It does so in order to reflect on the mechanisms through which technocratic thinking gets institutionalised within existing public government bodies, and to reveal the development of public planning expertise in contemporary urban governance. As in other chapters in this section, here we particularly question the changing role of public bureaucracies in the Netherlands, a country where public expertise still plays a central role in urban governance, but is progressively reformed to accommodate private actors
Background and aim – The aim of this paper is to look at the professionalization of municipal real estate management (MREM) from an organizational design perspective.Methods / Methodology – Analysis of current and recent MREMliterature in a Dutch context on organizational design. Results – It appears that organizational design is implicitly or explicitly concluded as being interesting and relevant, but no research was performed on this topic. In general, it seems MREM could be significantly better organized creating higher value of its real estate for society. Practical or social implications – The finding that organizational design is an interesting yet underexposed parameter contributes to an awareness at real estate professionals. A better organization of MREM will not only increase professionalism, but also create higher value for local authorities and society. Moreover, possibilities for future research have been identified. Ultimately, new research and more best case practices can advance the management of real estate at local governments.
In this chapter the autor explores the contours and possible effects of the WMO for the local government level. First she gives a short overview of the main features of the WMO (PAR. 2.5). Then she describes the challenges that local government is confronted with, especially the political decisions that have to be taken at the local level (PAR. 2.3). The question to be answered is whether or not the WMO means an impulse for local democracy in the Netherlands. To that purpose, two quick comparisons are made (PAR. 2.4): with other decentralisation operations in the Netherlands, and with the decentralisation of social care and welfare in Sweden. These comparisons make it possible to determine two main conditions for creating an impulse for local politics, which are presented in PAR. 2.5. The article ends by some concluding remarks on the effect of the WMO on the local democracy in the Netherlands.
The impacts of tourism on destinations and the perceptions of local communities have been a major concern both for the industry and research in the past decades. However, tourism planning has been mainly focused on traditions that promote the increase of tourism without taking under consideration the wellbeing of both residents and visitors. To develop a more sustainable tourism model, the inclusion of local residents in tourism decision-making is vital. However, this is not always possible due to structural, economic and socio-cultural restrictions that residents face resulting to their disempowerment. This study aims to explore and interpret the formal processes around tourism decision-making and community empowerment in urban settings. The research proposes a comparative study of three urban destinations in Europe (The Hague in the Netherlands, San Sebastian in Spain and, Ioannina in Greece) that experience similar degree of tourism growth. The proposed study will use a design-based approach in order to understand tourism decision-making and what empowers or disempowers community participation within the destinations. Based on the findings of primary and secondary data, a community empowerment model will be applied in one the destinations as a pilot for resident engagement in tourism planning. The evaluation of the pilot will allow for an optimized model to be created with implications for tourism planning at a local level that can contribute to sustainable destinations that safeguard the interests of local residents and tourists.
Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) can play an important part in the energy transition by providing a year-round net positive energy balance in urban areas. In creating PEDs, new challenges emerge for decision-makers in government, businesses and for the public. This proposal aims to provide replicable strategies for improving the process of creating PEDs with a particular emphasis on stakeholder engagement, and to create replicable innovative business models for flexible energy production, consumption and storage. The project will involve stakeholders from different backgrounds by collaborating with the province, municipalities, network operators, housing associations, businesses and academia to ensure covering all necessary interests and mobilise support for the PED agenda. Two demo sites are part of the consortium to implement the lessons learnt and to bring new insights from practice to the findings of the project work packages. These are 1), Zwette VI, part of the city of Leeuwarden (NL), where local electricity congestion causes delays in building homes and small industries. And 2) Aalborg East (DK), a mixed-use neighbourhood with well-established partnerships between local stakeholders, seeking to implement green energy solutions with ambitions of moving towards net-zero emissions.
The population in rural areas in the northern provinces are aging in a much higher pace than in other parts of the Netherlands. Many young and higher educated citizens move out of these provinces. Quality of life in rural villages decreases likewise and the inhabitants that stay behind are more vulnerable, with lower income and educational levels. Recent decentralization policies put a larger burden on local constituencies to guarantee the quality of the living environment but a lot of them lack sufficient knowledge and capacity to tackle this complex issue.The initiators of this application have joined their knowledge and experience to put together a consortium with the aim to support these smaller constituencies in rural areas in the three northern provinces with a new and innovative methodology: the GO! approach. This approach was developed in the neigborhoods of Utrecht municipality and will be used for the first time in rural communities with a comparable size .This approach consists of the following steps:• First to identify possibilities to create a healthier living environment by analyzing available data on pollution, spatial layout and social cohesion.• To discuss the result of this analysis with local citizens and other local stakeholders in order to link the data with local experiences• To prioritize into major themes as a result of the combination of all this available information.• To link these major themes to combinations effective measures available from RIVM and international databases.• To present these combinations to the local government, their citizens and other local stakeholders in order to let them choose for an effective approach and inplemant it together in order to create a local healthier living environment.The GO! approach will provide local citizens and professionals with the necessary tools and knowledge to work jointly and effectively to realize a healthier living environment. The project partners that jointly started the consortium will put in effort during this first year to build and formalize the consortium and to make arrangements with several constituencies in the three northers provinces to formulate their own specific knowledge agenda as a basis for concrete project proposals in the second stage to be implemented with the support of the formalized consortium.
