Drivers of European landscape change: stakeholders’ perspectives through Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping

Understanding complex processes of landscape change is crucial to guide the development of future landscapes and land resources. Through Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping, we studied the processes of landscape change of six different environmental zones in Europe. Results show that landscapes are complex systems, with many interactions. Except for one, all regions show a strong decline in landscape quality. Dominant drivers are EU policy and the global economy, sometimes in conjunction with environmental drivers or the governance system. The process of change differs for all cases, through urbanisation or land abandonment in some cases, and agricultural intensification in others. The (un)intended effects of policies are difficult to predict. Although some EU Policies directly improve landscape quality, their indirect effects as well as other EU policies outweigh this positive influence and jointly result in a decrease of landscape quality. To counter these negative side effects, targeted landscape policies are urgently needed.     

Exploring collaboration in hospital projects’ front-end phase

Hospital projects, like other major projects, start with the front-end phase, which considerably affects projects’ strategic success. There is an expressed need for more knowledge of the front-end to improve and thus strengthen the odds for strategic success. Hospital projects are complex and challenging to run much due to multiple stakeholders and societal impact. Hospital projects’ stakeholder multiplicity makes collaboration a fundamental activity in the front-end. In this paper, we propose a framework for front-end collaboration in hospital projects constituting the following interdependent categories: contexts, structures, means and catalysts. The categories interact to make collaboration happen and make collaboration work, indicating that the different categories should be considered at different times in the planning process. Successful collaboration may positively affect project outcome and leads to innovation and learning, which are important assets for hospital projects in identifying successful future solutions, hence strengthening the projects’ odds for long-term success.     

How to create a space for stakeholders’ involvement in construction

The aim is to investigate how stakeholders can participate in the early phases of construction projects and how relevant insights can be gathered from stakeholders with very different backgrounds and interests. To gain these insights, it is important to understand how a space can be created to facilitate communication between professionals and stakeholders. The research draws on the literature of design and user-driven innovation in order to get a richer understanding of stakeholders’ involvement in construction. The method applied is research based on three stakeholder workshops, interviews and observations from a single case study. The findings provide valuable information on six aspects of who the stakeholders are in construction, what these stakeholders can do in construction when involved, how to involve these stakeholders in a construction project, how a space can be staged and facilitated for the meeting of stakeholders, and what kind of information can be collected from the stakeholders to influence the development process. The findings show how creating and facilitating a workshop as a socio-technical space across boundaries can overcome barriers and improve stakeholders’ involvement and thus provide better insights into their needs, values and concerns.     

Landscape and the cultural politics of China’s anticipatory urbanism

China has seen a proliferation of monumental urban projects in recent years extending to lower tier cities. This paper examines the production of new urban landscapes in the Kangbashi New District of Ordos Municipality to assess the political economy and cultural logics of China’s current-day city-making programmes. The concept of ‘anticipatory urbanism’ is developed to interpret how monumentality in the built environment is aimed at foretelling new developmental futures promising to deliver power to the local state and prosperity to residents. The analysis assesses public responses to landscape transformations and discusses how speculation in the production of new city spaces generates conflict and crisis for the local state. Anticipatory urbanism is found to feed off government ambition and undermines sustainable urban growth.     

Towards a synergy between ‘content’ and ‘process’ in Dutch spatial planning: the Heuvelland case

Spatial planning in the Netherlands is shifting from regulatory toward more developmental modes of planning. This paper explores the background of these changes and discusses current approaches to developmental planning, especially in rural areas. It combines views reflected in planning theory with the accumulated experiences of a project in the southern part of the Netherlands, called Heuvelland. The Heuvelland project is aimed at the mobilisation of market parties for spatial developments. It is an attempt to circumvent the path-dependency in which many current spatial innovation projects get caught up, owing to established institutional planning and policy arrangements. We argue that in order to stimulate innovation and create a new economic base for rural spatial developments, new economic actors and new public–private structures and networks must be mobilised. We consider how this can be done, taking into account the importance of sustainable regional development.     

A ‘stranger’ in the making of strategy: A process perspective of project portfolio management in a pharmaceutical firm

Scholars assume that the strategic direction of project portfolios is designed within organisations. Our study challenges this assumption. Taking a process perspective, we explored the long-term influence of an external partner, a university researcher, on the development of a project portfolio in a large pharmaceutical firm. By following five contracts that connected the researcher to the firm, we observed how the researcher initiated and managed projects in the portfolio, thereby keeping his influence and relevance alive. Yet, despite his long-term influence, the researcher was perceived as a ‘stranger’ with an ambiguous, and at times surprising, role. We advance our theoretical understanding of the link between portfolios and their contexts by extending the concept of project lineage to inter-organisational lineages and showing their nonlinear and social character. We also suggest related contracts, ‘contractual paths,’ as novel and useful for exploring the link between portfolios and their contexts.     

Creative communities and the cultural economy — Insadong,chaebol urbanism and the local state in Seoul

Creative communities that arise in a cultural milieu of place-based social relationships are being targeted for cultural economy strategies to revitalize cities in Asia. The dominance of a small number of family owned conglomerates, chaebol, in the economy and politics of South Korea represents an extreme case of the corporatization of citymaking that drives cultural economy policies. The experience of the historic district of Insadong, Seoul, illustrates the resulting loss of vernacular heritage, gentrification and commodification of creative community life-spaces under the cultural economy banner. At the same time, democratization and the rise of civil society have provided openings for grassroots organizations to seek to protect and support local cultural spaces as sites for creative engagements in urban life. Recent success of grassroots mobilizations in countering corporatization by electing an activist as mayor of Seoul points to the need to give greater attention to role of the local state in sustaining creative communities.     

Performing the Primitive in the Postcolony: Nyoni’s Kraal in Cape Town

The production of particular spaces for tourist consumption of the “exotic” other involves the performance of particular conceptualizations of people and places that recreates theatrical versions of the primitive. Through analysis of one such space—Nyoni’s Kraal in Cape Town—we contend that both hosts and visitors are complicit in the construction of these spaces and imaginaries. To this end, practices of social and spatial policing as well as performativity and representations of cultural constructs of an “authentic Africa” are deployed in the projection of a specific form of constructed, “benign” multiculturalism. We contend that such practices reproduce a mythical idyll of Africa for consumption that recreates—rather than questions—colonial power structures, and therefore remain imbued with the inequitable and uncertain outcomes of modernity.

On “Critical Period Hypothesis” and demonstrate the irrationality of English learning begins in the Early Childhood in China

This paper first introduces the “Critical Period Hypothesis”(CPH) in L2 acquisition and the view of its supporters. However, it raised the opposite views from many other scholars and made them using th...     

Sizing up ‘the box’ in order to fit in

Participants in design processes make an effort to come up with solutions that will be deemed acceptable, while accomplishing to ‘think out of the box’. Thinking ‘outside the box’ is often announced as a challenge to and for design teams. ‘The box’ is a metaphor often used in creative processes, and in organisational practices, as a term for rules and regulations, everyday routines and tacit knowledge of ‘how things usually are’ and ‘what we know about the world’. Such a challenge is meant to encourage participants to approach a situation with an open mind, challenge the most basic assumptions and be willing to do things differently. Basically, something different is being called for. Studies have shown that it is striking, how much the participants orient to actually ‘fit’ the box, even when asked to develop it. This paper shows how participants in design processes are ‘sizing up the box’, while participating in meetings or workshops in order to develop a design. They identify key stakeholders of the designated design project; they share their own expectations of these key stakeholders' possible perceptions, discuss the success criteria and negotiate the values that are to govern the design team in the development process.     

The role of policy learning in urban mobility adaptation: exploring Vancouver’s plan to remove the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts

ABSTRACT

In 2015, Vancouver’s City Council approved a plan for removing the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts and replacing 2.6 km of vestigial expressway infrastructure with a surface boulevard, parks, public space, and housing. This article explores whether policy learning from other cities influenced Vancouver’s decision. Using the Dolowitz-Marsh framework, we found evidence that planners,politicians, and the public introduced examples of expressway removal and infrastructure adaptation during Vancouver’s policymaking process and that lesson drawing influenced the outcome. The policy learning revealed here shows how North American cities can advance a more equal redistribution of urban space by removing expressway infrastructure.     

Project portfolio management information systems’ positive influence on performance – the importance of process maturity

Companies increasingly support their project portfolio management processes with specific software, and the market for IT solutions is growing. While project portfolio management information systems (PPMIS) promise to improve the quality of the management process and eventually portfolio performance, it is unclear whether they actually deliver on this promise. We lack empirical evidence regarding the actual benefits of PPMIS and knowledge on the conditions under which PPMIS application is most beneficial. Using a sample of 181 project portfolios, this study shows for the first time that PPMIS application is overall positively associated with the quality of portfolio management processes and project portfolio success. However, moderation analyses further reveal that these effects only materialize when formalization of single project management, project portfolio management, and risk management are sufficiently high. Surprisingly, the benefits of PPMIS application do not depend on portfolio complexity (size, project interdependency, dynamics).     

Urban consolidation process and discourses in Sydney: unpacking social media use in a community group’s media campaign

Community resistance to urban consolidation has been the subject of much research. However, dialogue through social media between citizens and planning agencies is rarely captured and analysed. Using discourse analysis we explore the discourses employed by local government, a state planning agency, an independent expert panel, journalists and a self-organised community group to either support or oppose a proposed development. Due to the significant use of social media by the community group and other stakeholders, we include Twitter dialogues in our discourse analysis. Three key findings emerge; first, a central strategy mobilised by all stakeholders was the tendency to appropriate the arguments of other stakeholders in order to support their own arguments. Second, the community group’s knowledge of the planning process improved to the extent that they developed a strong awareness of a larger planning system which broadened the scope of their social media strategy. Third, social media’s provision to the public of an open and expeditious channel of communication strained the internal processes of a planning agency.     

Sustainable property funds: financial stakeholders’ views on sustainability criteria and market acceptance

Sustainable property (real estate) funds (S-REFs) have started to enter international finance markets. An investigation in the German-speaking parts of Switzerland examined two key questions: (1) the sustainability criteria that institutional real estate investors and real estate fund (REF) suppliers regard as important for the market success of S-REFs; and (2) how they assess the market acceptance of such funds. Focus groups were conducted to define sustainability components for S-REFs from a market success perspective. A questionnaire study was then undertaken to assess the two key questions. Factor analysis identified four independent sustainability factors: (1) building materials and energy; (2) expenses, return, and flexibility; (3) green space design; and (4) landscape and natural ecology. In the factor analysis, the set of criteria relating to sustainable social infrastructure did not form an independent factor. In total, 76% of the responding institutional investors decided on an S-REF investment, and 38% reported accepting return shortfalls against the REF benchmark. The market acceptance of S-REFs by institutional investors depends on cognitive drivers, institutional context, age, and family status of investors. These results can inform the design of S-REFs, marketing strategies, and sustainability ratings.

Des fonds de placement immobilier durable ont commencé à pénétrer les marchés financiers internationaux. Une enquête effectuée dans les régions germanophones de la Suisse a examiné deux questions clés: (1) les crite`res de durabilité que les investisseurs immobiliers institutionnels et les fournisseurs de fonds immobiliers conside`rent comme importants pour le succe`s commercial des fonds de placement immobilier durable; et (2) comment ils évaluent l'acceptation de tels fonds par le marché. Des groupes de discussion ont été menés afin de définir les éléments de durabilité de ces fonds de placement immobilier durable du point de vue du succe`s commercial. Une étude par questionnaire a ensuite été entreprise pour évaluer ces deux questions clés. L'analyse factorielle a identifié quatre facteurs de durabilité indépendants: (1) les matériaux de construction et l’énergie; (2) les frais, le rendement et la flexibilité; (3) la conception des espaces verts; et (4) le paysage et l’écologie naturelle. Dans l'analyse factorielle, l'ensemble des facteurs liés aux infrastructures sociales durables ne constituait pas un facteur indépendant. Au total, 76% des investisseurs institutionnels qui ont répondu ont opté pour un investissement dans des fonds de placement immobilier durable, et 38% ont indiqué qu'ils acceptaient des pertes de rendement par rapport à l'indice de référence des fonds de placement immobilier. L'acceptation des fonds de placement immobilier durable par les investisseurs institutionnels dépend des facteurs cognitifs, du contexte institutionnel, de l’âge et de la situation de famille des investisseurs. Ces résultats peuvent avoir une influence sur la conception des fonds de placement immobilier durable, les stratégies marketing et les notations de durabilité.

Mots clés: principales parties prenantes financie`res, acceptation par le marché, investissement immobilier responsable, crite`res de durabilité, fonds de placement immobilier durable     

Pursuit of integration in the former Yugoslavia’s planning

From the perspective of its inherent promises, difficulties, elusiveness, and relative discontinuity, the pursuit of integration in planning could be compared to the Quest for the Holy Grail. The aim of this paper is to identify the main commitments and impediments to pursued integration in the former Yugoslavia’s planning from the late 1950s until the late 1980s, drawing on the theoretical discourse, legislative, and institutional framework and the case study of the spatial plan preparation in the Socialist Republic of Serbia. During the chosen period, different aspects of integrated approach to spatial and urban planning were pursued in a context of creating and failing to deliver a unique Yugoslav version of the welfare state – the self-management socialism. In this light, the intended integration is contrasted to poor outcomes, which led to the loss of legitimacy and the final dissolution of the state, its ideology, governance, and socio-economic planning. The conclusion reflects on the main merits and pitfalls of the former Yugoslavia’s experiment to illuminate some general risks associated with the integrated approach in planning.