Abstract
Discusses the risk‐return profile of property investment. Reports on a telephone survey of financial institutions concerning property investment. Comments on the survey results. Concludes that property investment is still regarded as a long‐term, low‐risk asset. Cautions that unitized property has a limited appeal.
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The contemporary city is a field with a myriad of problems that require deep reflection and the questioning of habitual ways of thinking and acting. This chapter examines some of…
Abstract
The contemporary city is a field with a myriad of problems that require deep reflection and the questioning of habitual ways of thinking and acting. This chapter examines some of these, while seeking a path – or perhaps a way out – in order to deal with the difficulties linked to the most pressing emergent phenomena: the multiplication of new citizens, the complicated mosaic of differences, the spread of voluntary communities and the requests for recognition in a socially diverse and multiple society.
The reflections brought together in this chapter leave behind mundane literary routines, imprisoned in the clichés of the discourse on post-modernity, to single out a ‘field of practices’ that is enigmatic but at the same time constitutes and generates a new idea of urbanity. DiverCity (Perrone, 2010) is the literary and evocative figuration that recounts this set of practices. The figuration uses a ‘play on words’ between diversity and city, in which the two concepts are understood as entities with a one-to-one correspondence, an ontological interconnection. DiverCity is the outcome of a process to produce and exchange multiple, plural, interactive (built up during the action), expert and experiential knowledge.
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Since the publication of the 1987 Brundtland Report, discussions about sustainable development have been nothing short of a buzz among politicians and academics. This chapter…
Abstract
Purpose
Since the publication of the 1987 Brundtland Report, discussions about sustainable development have been nothing short of a buzz among politicians and academics. This chapter takes stock of an emerging strand of the sustainable city literature that recognizes local political dynamics, conflicts of interest, and power struggles.
Approach
The review is organized into three sections. The first section reviews how past studies have utilized sustainable urban development as an opportunity for advancing theories of urban politics, highlighting recent developments in the growth machine, regulatory state, and risk society theses. The second section examines a range of studies that place the questions of scale, unit, and boundary at the center of inquiry. The third section draws together a body of research that interrogates different meanings of sustainability.
Implications
The first section discusses the extent to which social and political processes in the sustainability age exhibit a pattern consistent with established theoretical accounts. The second section focuses on studies that address how urban sustainable development has brought challenges to existing configurations of spatial relations. These studies pose important methodological and epistemological questions for studying environmental politics. In the third section, the focus is placed on political implications of urban sustainable development, which is subject to multiple interpretations.
Originality
This chapter ends with a review of an emerging thesis – strategic urbanism, which draws attention to the patterns of change in urban politics. Much of the contributions to this thesis are based on urban sustainability politics in recent years.
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Lake Sagaris and Ignacio Tiznado-Aitken
Sustainable transport is often defined according to energy efficiency and environmental impacts. With global approval during Habitat III, however, a set of Sustainable Development…
Abstract
Sustainable transport is often defined according to energy efficiency and environmental impacts. With global approval during Habitat III, however, a set of Sustainable Development Goals have become the focus for human development until 2030, underlining the relevance of health, equity and other social issues.
These goals raise the challenge of achieving significant progress towards ‘transport justice’ in diverse societies and contexts. While exclusion occurs for different reasons, discrimination, based on cultural roles, combines with sexual harassment and other mobility barriers to limit women’s mobility. This makes gender an area of particular interest and potential insight for considering equity within sustainability and its social components.
Using data from Metropolitan Santiago to ground a conceptual exploration, this chapter examines the equity implications of women’s travel patterns and sustainable transport. Key findings underline the importance of considering non-work trip purposes and achieving better land-use combinations to accommodate care-oriented trips. Moreover, barriers linked to unsafe public transport environments limit women’s mobility and, therefore, their participation. Women account for a disproportionately high number of walking trips, a situation that can be interpreted as ‘greater sustainability’ in terms of energy use and emissions, but suggests significant inequalities in access. Environmental and economic sustainability gains may be achieved at a high social cost, unless specific measures are taken.
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Ben Spencer, Tim Jones, Juliet Carpenter and Sue Brownill
This chapter explores the potential for involving the public in planning healthy urban mobility using a case study of two neighbourhoods in Oxford, UK. We draw specifically on…
Abstract
This chapter explores the potential for involving the public in planning healthy urban mobility using a case study of two neighbourhoods in Oxford, UK. We draw specifically on lessons learned from the UK case of a large-scale international study entitled Healthy Urban Mobility (HUM). The HUM project was based on the need to address health inequalities within urban areas by implementing new approaches to planning and health that use novel research methods to encourage active dialogue with a wide range of stakeholders. The two principal objectives of the research were firstly, to understand the impact of everyday (im)mobility on health and wellbeing within different social groups, and secondly, to explore the potential for participatory mobilities planning with local communities to support and develop solutions for healthy urban mobility.
The chapter is organised into six parts. Following the introduction, we highlight the theories behind the need for public participation in urban mobility planning and calls for active dialogue and mutual learning between practitioners and communities for effective action on improving urban health. Then in the third and fourth parts, we provide an overview of the approach to participatory mobilities planning with local communities in the UK as part of the HUM project. In the fifth part, we report the outcomes of the project and critically reflect on the overall approach and lessons learned that may be of use to practitioners and communities. Finally, we conclude with the significance of the study and implications for public participation in planning healthy urban mobility. The research demonstrates the significant potential of participatory methods in transport infrastructure project but also highlights the complexities of public engagement and points to the need for a continual, long-term process to build trust between partners.
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In 1968, Garrett Hardin identified a class of common goods that suffer under traditional market mechanisms. As a result, institutions become pivotal in defining acceptable…
Abstract
In 1968, Garrett Hardin identified a class of common goods that suffer under traditional market mechanisms. As a result, institutions become pivotal in defining acceptable consumption behavior. This paper describes the results of an agent-based computer simulation used to study how institutional forces shape consumption patterns. The results suggest common-interested behaviors support a greater population at a higher quality of living; however, exclusively common-interested behaviors result in underutilized commons, and the whole is generally less well off. Overall, when populations generally act in the common-interest, the commons, the population and individuals all experience higher quality outcomes than when they act in generally or exclusively self-interested ways. The paper frames further applications in terms of managing growth for long-term sustainability.
The construction sector must accept new ways of working if it is to remain competitive and meet the demands of its ever-demanding clients in the twenty-first century. Many people…
Abstract
The construction sector must accept new ways of working if it is to remain competitive and meet the demands of its ever-demanding clients in the twenty-first century. Many people believe that collaborative working is required for design and construction teams to comprehend the complete construction process life cycle. Collaboration among project participants has gained a lot of attention in the field of construction management in recent years. The claim that cooperation promotes project success is supported by a number of case studies. The goal of this study is to see if facilitating collaboration is a good indicator of long-term construction. Effective cooperation, on the other hand, is now recognised as having an impact on project performance in terms of project success and delivery.
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Budi Harsanto and Chrisna T. Permana
This study aims to explore the development of sustainability-oriented innovation (SOI) in the cultural village. SOI has recently generated widespread interest, both academically…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the development of sustainability-oriented innovation (SOI) in the cultural village. SOI has recently generated widespread interest, both academically and practically, by factoring in environmental and social impacts in addition to economic aspects. However, previous works have mostly been performed at profit organisations, with few discussed at the non-profit, and likewise, in the cultural village.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a qualitative approach by focusing on a unique case, Laweyan Batik Village in Surakarta, Indonesia. Founded in the 15th century, Laweyan Batik Village remains the oldest batik village in Indonesia. Batik is the traditional fabric of Indonesia, influenced by Arabian, Chinese and European patterns, that was recognised in 2009 by UNESCO as part of the World's Intangible Cultural Heritage. The actor-network theory (ANT) is used as an analytical framework to understand the process of SOI development through the role of actors in developing innovations.
Findings
The findings suggest that, it is not only in mainstream business sectors and formal settings, as already evidenced by existing literature, that SOI can be promoted, but also in community sectors and within informal settings. This paper has found that the development of sustainability innovation in these settings is challenged by the dynamics of the actors and the institutional settings. The overall development process of sustainability innovation has been undertaken through so-called “collaborative practices”, emphasising the involvement of government actors and non-government actors, highlighting community leaders, academics and NGOs as the “in-between” actors who provide knowledge sharing and maintain communications to ensure the promotion of the SOI concepts and programmes.
Originality/value
This research contributes in two main ways: first, an understanding of the process of sustainability innovation in a cultural village that has not been deeply explored by current literature; and second, the use of the actor network theory as an analytical framework from which to map the process of SOI collaborative development through networking dimensions.