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This chapter discusses the findings of a research project rooted in the unique context of a former Victorian square in South London squatted in the 1980s and 1990s. Over three decades, squatters (later homeowners and tenants) mended derelict houses, created two community gardens and green streets, and set up a vegetarian café locally. The square, an oasis in the middle of London, is now a fashionable neighborhood to live and visit because of its enduring artistic flair and alternative cultural “feel.” Through ethnographic methods, our research focused on how residents transformed derelict buildings and neglected spaces and on the evolving dynamics of this neighborhood undergoing progressive gentrification, reflecting similar trends in many other neighborhoods in London. This chapter analyses these informal practices as examples of creative placemaking. Framed by the intricate interplay between the community's initiatives and the challenges posed by contemporary processes of regeneration and gentrification, we explore how such practices shaped both the material fabric of the place as well as its immaterial character: its sense of community and identity and the feelings and memories associated with its built environment. Informed by Lefebvre's theories on the social production of space and the right to the city, our analysis emphasizes the importance of informality, everyday practice, spontaneity, and self-management in shaping and sustaining a vibrant urban culture. By exploring how these elements intersect with forces of regeneration and gentrification, this chapter aims to contribute to a nuanced understanding of creative placemaking, the complex dynamics at play in the ongoing transformation of urban spaces, and the resilience of bottom-up, community-driven placemaking initiatives in the face of external pressures.

This study examined the factors militating against walking as a form of active mobility in Akure, Nigeria. For questionnaire administration, from the 548,315 population of Akure, two hundred and seventy-four (274) household heads representing 0.05% of the entire population of Akure were sampled with the aid of a structured and self-administered questionnaire using a systematic sampling technique. The elicited data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. From the analysis, the major impediments to walking were the socio-cultural belief that anybody walking was poor, followed by accessibility to motorised transport, and inadequate pedestrian facilities. These situations have significantly deterred people from seeing walking as an active form of mobility in the study area. Thus, the study recommends a strong sensitisation and awareness programme to robustly enlighten people on the need to embrace walking as a form of urban mobility. Also, the government should adequately and sustainably invest more in pedestrian facilities that will promote the culture of walking among people and/or road users in Akure, Nigeria. More importantly, for inclusiveness in urban planning, road infrastructure should be designed alongside other road elements to ensure seamless negotiations between pedestrians and vehicles without any form of conflict.

The article presents research on the long-term information needs of homicide bereaved individuals in the context of record-keeping practice within Major Crime Units (MCU) in England. The research objectives were to: (1) identify the long-term information needs of individuals bereaved by homicide; (2) establish MCU officer perceptions on the provision of information to individuals bereaved by homicide; (3) establish the current practice of MCU officers in managing and providing access to homicide records and (4) explore the capability of current recordkeeping practice to move beyond the use of homicide records for their primary “policing” purpose.

The research objectives were met by combining findings from a literature review across policing, bereavement, death, victimology, criminology, records management and archival studies with results from a singular interview-based study with officers at the Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire Major Crime Unit (BHCMCU).

The findings indicate that the long-term information needs of homicide bereaved individuals are ill-served by the current police recordkeeping framework which provides them with little involvement in record-keeping decision-making and limited long-term access to the information required for sensemaking/adaption in a post-homicide world. In this context, the research demonstrates a long term need for: (1) information access; (2) support for access; (3) a direct and personalised information access service and (4) trauma-informed and victim/survivor centred practice in police recordkeeping contexts.

The research addresses a major gap across disciplinary research literature in its focus on the ways investigative information is disclosed by the police to the bereaved following case closure.

Waiting for a bus may represent a period of intense exposure to traffic particles in hot and noisy conditions in the street. To lessen the particle load and tackle heat in bus stops a shelter was equipped with an electrostatic precipitator and a three-step adiabatic cooling system capable of dynamically adjust its operation according to actual conditions. This study evaluates the effectiveness of the Airbitat Oasis Smart Bus Stop, as the shelter was called, to provide clean and cool air.

The particle exposure experienced in this innovative shelter was contrasted with that in a conventional shelter located right next to it. Mass concentrations of fine particles and black carbon, and particle number concentration (as a proxy of ultrafine particles) were simultaneously measured in both shelters. Air temperature, relative humidity and noise level were also measured.

The new shelter did not perform as expected. It only slightly reduced the abundance of fine particles (−6.5%), but not of ultrafine particles and black carbon. Similarly, it reduced air temperature (−1 °C), but increased relative humidity (3%). Its operation did not generate additional noise.

The shelter's poor performance was presumably due to design flaws induced by a lack of knowledge on traffic particles and fluid dynamics in urban environments. This is an example where harnessing technology without understanding the problem to solve does not work.

It is uncommon to come across case studies like this one in which the performance and effectiveness of urban infrastructure can be assessed under real-life service settings.

This study aims to review the current trends in early contractor involvement (ECI) in construction project development. The review consist of the following objectives: (1) identifying the benefits of ECI on construction project development; (2) identifying the challenges of ECI in construction project development; and (3) identifying the strategies of ECI in construction project development.

This study systematically reviews the literature on the application of ECI in construction project development. A total of 133 related articles were identified and analyzed using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) method.

This review identified “improved team work/collaboration working relationship” as the top benefits of ECI in construction project development. “Cultural barrier” was identified as the top challenge of ECI in construction project development, while “contributing value engineering” and “buildability evaluation input”, were the top two strategies of ECI in construction project development.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to systematically review prior literature on ECI. As a result, the study provides a comprehensive understanding of the current state of the art and fills the literature gap. Researchers and industry professionals can use the study findings to increase the rate and benefits of implementing ECI in construction projects.

This chapter explores street art as a form of creative and cultural entrepreneurship from two perspectives. Firstly, in relation to placemaking during a pandemic (COVID-19) and secondly, from the experiences of the artist-entrepreneur, in terms of taking opportunities. Drawing on a single, in-depth case study, it analyses how the art entrepreneur is able to take opportunities through ‘necessary combined capabilities’ (Wilson & Martin, 2015). Further reflection from the artist then explains how internal capabilities are used to sustain the entrepreneurial process. The discussion gives insight into how creative entrepreneurship is enabled by context and the entrepreneur’s self-motivation and learning during COVID-19. It has implications for how art entrepreneurs can develop their skills and reputation through taking placemaking opportunities.

Differences in annual publication counts may reflect the dynamic of scientific progress. Declining annual numbers of publications may be interpreted as missing progress in field-specific knowledge.

In this paper, we present empirical results on dynamics of progress in economic fields (defined by Journal of Economic Literature (JEL), codes) based on a methodological approach introduced by Bornmann and Haunschild (2022). We focused on publications that have been published between 2012 and 2021 and identified those fields in economics with the highest dynamics (largest rates of change in paper counts).

We found that the field with the largest paper output across the years is “Economic Development”. The results reveal that the field-specific rates of changes are mostly similar. However, the two fields “Production and Organizations” and “Health” show point estimators which are clearly higher than the estimators for the other fields. We investigated the publications in “Production and Organizations” and “Health” in more detail.

Understanding how a discipline evolves over time is interesting both from a historical and a recent perspective. This study presents results on the dynamics in economic fields using a new methodological approach.

The purpose of this study is to prepare a state-of-the-art review on advanced ceramic materials including their fabrication techniques, characteristics, applications and wettability.

This review paper presents the various types of advanced ceramic materials according to their compounding elements, fabrication techniques of advanced ceramic powders as well as their consolidation, their characteristics, applications and wetting properties. Hydrophobic/hydrophilic properties of advanced ceramic materials are described in the paper with their state-of-the-art application areas. Optical properties of fine ceramics with their intrinsic characteristics are also presented within. Special focus is given to the brief description of application-based manipulation of wetting properties of advanced ceramics in the paper.

The study of wetting/hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity of ceramic materials is important by which it can be further modified to achieve the required applications. It also makes some sense that the material should be tested for its wetting properties when it is going to be used in some important applications like biomedical and dental. Also, these advanced ceramics are now often used in the fabrication of filters and membranes to purify liquid/water so the study of wetting characteristics of these materials becomes essential. The optical properties of advanced ceramics are equally making them suitable for many state-of-the-art applications. Dental, medical, imaging and electronics are the few sectors that use advanced ceramics for their optical properties.

This review paper includes various advanced ceramic materials according to their compounding elements, different fabrication techniques of powders and their consolidation, their characteristics, various application area and hydrophobic/hydrophilic properties.

This study aims to enhance merging of additive manufacturing (AM) techniques with powder injection molding (PIM). In this way, the prototypes could be 3D-printed and mass production implemented using PIM. Thus, the surface properties and mechanical performance of parts produced using powder/polymer binder feedstocks [material extrusion (MEX) and PIM] were investigated and compared with powder manufacturing based on direct metal laser sintering (DMLS).

PIM parts were manufactured from 17-4PH stainless steel PIM-quality powder and powder intended for powder bed fusion compounded with a recently developed environmentally benign binder. Rheological data obtained at the relevant temperatures were used to set up the process parameters of injection molding. The tensile and yield strengths as well as the strain at break were determined for PIM sintered parts and compared to those produced using MEX and DMLS. Surface properties were evaluated through a 3D scanner and analyzed with advanced statistical tools.

Advanced statistical analyses of the surface properties showed the proximity between the surfaces created via PIM and MEX. The tensile and yield strengths, as well as the strain at break, suggested that DMLS provides sintered samples with the highest strength and ductility; however, PIM parts made from environmentally benign feedstock may successfully compete with this manufacturing route.

This study addresses the issues connected to the merging of two environmentally efficient processing routes. The literature survey included has shown that there is so far no study comparing AM and PIM techniques systematically on the fixed part shape and dimensions using advanced statistical tools to derive the proximity of the investigated processing routes.

Warehouses, essential nodes in the supply chain, significantly contribute to sustainability issues, accounting for about 11% of emissions related to logistics activities. The purpose of this study is to review articles on sustainable warehouse management (SWM) from the Scopus database to analyze trends, synthesize existing knowledge, and identify research gaps for future studies.

The review uses text mining of initial relevant documents to create a search string for paper retrieval. Text mining is further used to generate a dendrogram of the most frequently used words in the research papers, which is then analyzed to identify themes and sub-themes in SWM.

The dendrogram reveals four major themes and their sub-themes within SWM, including two novel themes: sustainable warehouse in green logistics and sustainable warehouse location. In addition, 12 research recommendations are identified through content analysis and are subsequently linked to specific Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The methodological innovation in keyword selection for searching relevant papers and identifying themes serves as a structured template for researchers to explore further.

The research recommendations, aligned with the SDGs, aim to assist managers in making informed decisions and operational strategies to enhance factors associated with the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method and the sustainable performance of warehouses.

This study is novel in its application of text-mining techniques to generate a search string for identifying relevant papers and discerning themes by analyzing the dendrogram.