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The interview traces the early discussions in the context of disasters as developmental failures.

The transcript and video was developed in the context of a United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) project on the history of DRR.

The interview traces the development of disaster risk reduction discussions in different contexts such as “LA RED” network in Latin America.

The interview clearly highlights the need to not forget the early thoughts on vulnerability and disaster risk.

Surveys of corporate real estate executives in North America and elsewhere in the world indicate significant shifts in their thinking in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Aside from the predictably much greater concern with planning for emergency escape from buildings, executives indicated that the greatest shifts in their thinking centred around issues of security of information technology and communication systems; greater use of teleconferencing and video‐conferencing (reducing travel); and more new ways of working such as homeworking, satellite and neighbourhood work centres, and hotelling. Along with such changes in practice, executives also indicated the desire to create stronger communities within their organisations, even as they also expect further to disperse their activities across locations. There is a slight shift in preference away from downtown locations and a much higher overall concern with occupancy control over the spaces that they occupy. In North America especially, there is a shift away from occupancy of high‐profile named buildings. Overall the surveys indicate that corporate real estate executives are moving ahead with distributed work‐location strategies, increasing their reliance on virtual technologies for collaboration, and re‐thinking the branding of their physical assets and the nature of community in their organisations. All of these changes further indicate the increasingly integrative role of corporate real estate within wider business strategy and a closer alignment of corporate real estate activities with human resources, organisational development and information technology.

This work was originally commissioned during 1982, the year that was designated Information Technology Year; the year that the personal computer replaced the space invader machine as a focus for teenage obsession; the year of the library symbol, the Hunt Report on cable TV; the year the US Post Office issued two stamps celebrating American libraries, and the British Post Office issued a stamp for IT year suggesting that libraries were a thing of the past. The work was intended to look at “the background to the IT revolution, the benefits of applying technology to library services and the reasons for its relatively slow progress”. It was envisaged at the time that what would have been effectively a state‐of‐the‐art report on the technology available to libraries, and who was doing what with it, would be a useful tool for library managers introducing or extending library technical services. It might usefully have complemented the LA publication, The impact of new technology on libraries and information centres (LA, 1982). However, for a variety of reasons it was not possible to produce the publication in 1983 as intended; the person commissioned to write it was unable to do so; and eventually, in 1984, it was realised that the speed of development and availability of technology was such that any such work would be useless as a practical guide within months of publication. The growth, during the period, of journals on the subject of library applications of IT of all kinds; the appearance of regular updates in the generalist professional press; the formation of, for example, the Library Association IT Group: all these developments clearly offered better opportunities of current awareness to the library manager than could be achieved by a single monograph.

The following article reports the results of a global benchmarking/trend survey conducted among 127 senior level real estate and facilities executives from North America and Europe. The results reveal a collective five‐year vision for the workplace, exploring trends occurring in several key areas that impact space utilization and workplace design. Findings compare selected trends in North America with trends taking place in Europe. Areas examined include expected changes in the use of information technology, anticipated growth in new work styles such as telecommuting, collaboration and work‐at‐home, and the inevitable impact these will have on real estate and workplace design. The findings show that organizations expect work to become more collaborative (both ace‐to‐face and virtually), information technology ill enable growth in distributed working, and the workplace will be re‐designed to support collaboration rather than individual work activity. The research is followed by an interview with Marilyn Simeone, Vice President of Corporate Services for Merrill Lynch, who describes how the company is leveraging these directions of change to create more efficient, innovative workplaces in North America that meet the changing needs of employees as well as the company.

The office as a workplace has reached a critical point in its evolution. The requirement of the conventional office would appear to be holding back the near applications of IT and organisational creativity, which aim to promote a much freer and more dynamic relationship between space and time for the office workplace. Henry Ford′s mass production of the 1920s laid the foundations of the modern office as we know it, but “post‐Fordism” is challenging the rigid patterns then ordained, especially the traditional notions of work time and space. To this end not only must the office be redesigned but also the nature of work itself must be redefined.

Questions the essential nature of the office building itself in a study, The Responsible Workplace, which criticizes the stereotype found in North America and Northern Europe. Identifies two realities which drive the demand for improvement: more powerful IT and more discriminating users. Lists the changing factors which will influence the design and use of the office buildings of the future: businesses, user expectations, technologies, IT and intelligent buildings, building performance, environmental issues, locations, patterns of office work, and regulatory perspectives. Finally, identifies ten initiatives for innovation which will virtually remake the working environment and invent the cities of the 2000s.

The complexity of modern policing requires an accountable police service to operate in a diverse society, where support/trust must be earned by action and deed. The article examines the potential of market orientated strategies in facilitating policing initiatives, such as community policing and enhanced service quality. The work reviews the concept of market orientation and adopts a case study approach to research. Market orientated/customer focused strategies are examined in a range of public, private and international sectors. Findings outline a three‐stage “turnaround” process to enhance service quality and highlight the importance of market orientation in counteracting the concept of “unwilling/reluctant customers”. Draws on case studies from Inland Revenue, Richer Sounds plc and the New York Police Department.

Asks what happens to company headquarters when an organisation decides to downsize its operations. Examines new organisational imperatives and the reasons for restructuring and streamlining. Presents the ways that headquarters buildings have responded to the changing business environment. Offers some examples of shrinking headquarters in the United Kingdom. Suggests that it has been possible for some companies to develop, use and manage shrinking headquarters creatively.

Suggests that the trend towards desk sharing is the result of the need to think of the office as a full‐time productive resource. Presents space occupancy survey and several concepts of space sharing. Examines cases where innovative desk sharing solutions have actually been implemented. Considers the contradictory implications of desk sharing and the future of the office in terms of new locations, new technology, new forms of organisation, increasing support space, raising productivity, and finally new forms of facilities management.