Quasi-Quisling: co-design and the assembly of collaborateurs

In recent years, various critiques of participative approaches to design processes have been presented. Participatory urban planning has been subject to a specific form of criticism, which posits that such processes are ‘post-political’, inasmuch as they merely legitimise the power and political agendas of elites. In reviewing a case of participatory urban planning in Gothenburg, Sweden, this article suggests that actor-network theory can be operationalised as an alternative means to account for democratic deficiencies of co-design practices. It thus uses the concept of translation to describe how the original interests of participants may be betrayed, as successive translations cause objectives to drift. It also suggests that the key agency in these unfortunate betrayals is not human, but emerges through the material modes of collaboration. The article thus endeavours to contribute to the debate on how co-design processes may become more effective means to democratise urban planning and design.     

Monies,economies and democracy: cultivating ambivalence in the co-design of digital currencies

ABSTRACT

Systematised collaborative design of complementary currencies is still a largely unexplored area that offers underutilised opportunities for supporting a fair and sustainable sharing economy. Future currency design necessitates attention to the systemic factors and the social particularities in which new monetary alternatives, i.e. ‘monies’, and the technological solutions that serve these alternatives, are created. This paper argues for a socially and contextually sensitive design of complementary currency innovation. It considers the technological conditions and the tendencies to exploitation from contemporary capitalism. Based on the literature review, we propose collaborative design of complementary currencies with particularist and inclusive approaches. New directions for open-ended economic innovation are explored in finding opportunities in the future-oriented Transition Design, supported by an empathic and ambivalent design mindset.     

What women want: single older women and their housing preferences

It is increasingly recognized in Australia that single, older women are particularly vulnerable to housing-related stress and homelessness. This paper reports on a qualitative study that explored the housing experiences of single, older, non-homeowning women in regional New South Wales, Australia. Interviews were conducted with 47 participants living independently in precarious housing. This paper focuses upon the housing preferences expressed by the participants. A feminist standpoint perspective was adopted and thematic analysis was employed to interrogate the data. Findings showed the women’s primary preference is security of tenure in housing that is affordable and suited to their needs. Further, they want to feel they have autonomy in the private sphere. Over the participants’ life course, twin discourses of patriarchy and neoliberalism were identified as influential in shaping social arrangements, both in Australia and other developed countries. These findings may assist policy-makers in planning future housing for this ageing cohort.     

建设工程项目组织系统理论与方法研究——基于项目管理哲学层面的思考

引入系统科学的思想和方法,阐述工程项目组织系统理论和方法在管理实践中的应用:一是认识和把握项目组织系统中的局整关系问题,以有效推进项目目标的全面实现;二是分析工程项目组织系统中各要素的相互关系,以有效解决项目组织和资源优化问题;三是把握各要素相互关系中的关键关系问题,以解决项目组织和风险管理问题。最后指出工程项目管理组织系统理论和方法在应用实践上的不足并提出研究展望。     

The breakdown of the municipality as caring platform: lessons for co-design and co-learning in the age of platform capitalism

ABSTRACT

If municipalities were the caring platforms of the 19-20th century sharing economy, how does care manifest in civic structures of the current period? We consider how platforms – from the local initiatives of communities transforming neighbourhoods, to the city, in the form of the local authority – are involved, trusted and/or relied on the design of shared services and amenities for the public good. We use contrasting cases of interaction between local government and civil society organisations in Sweden and the UK to explore trends in public service provision. We look at how care can manifest between state and citizens and at the roles that co-design and co-learning play in developing contextually sensitive opportunities for caring platforms. In this way, we seek to learn from platforms in transition about the importance of co-learning in political and structural contexts and make recommendations for the co-design of (digital) platforms to care with and for civil society.     

Regions,Territories and Strategies: Trends in Contemporary Practice and Thinking

This article develops a framework to evaluate organizational longevity, change and success amongst feminist planning initiatives. It takes a comparative approach, reviewing the histories of four long-lived planning organizations, based in Toronto, Melbourne, Montréal and London. It investigates questions of how feminist planning organizations survive and thrive over the long haul, how they replenish membership and leadership, and how success and limitations can be comparatively analysed.     

Urban Runoff: Nature, Characteristics and Control

The paper describes the nature and characteristics of urban runoff and the effects of urbanization and industrialization on the hydrologic/hydraulic regime and on water quality. The need for control measures to alleviate and prevent problems caused by urban runoff is highlighted, and this is related to the adverse environmental impacts of urban runoff.
Measures and techniques currently available and under development for urban runoff control are described within the framework of regulators, service providers and the general public. The need for an integrated approach to urban runoff control is highlighted, and this is followed by a number of case studies demonstrating the cost-effectiveness of an integrated approach.     

Feeling good,being good and looking good: Motivations for,and benefits from,project management certification

Project management (PM) is one of many occupations following a path to professionalization that includes voluntary certification. It has been said that certification, and especially voluntary certification, can be seen as an approach to being good by improving our competence in the profession, or a means to looking good, essentially signaling the capabilities of the holder. Based on self-determination theory, we contribute to this discussion the notion of feeling good whereby certification provides a way to challenge one's capabilities, provide self-actualization, and a sense of worth. Using two sets of survey responses, collected 10 years apart (2004 and 2014), we assess whether there are differences in the demographics of those seeking voluntary project management certification, and the motivations (expected benefits), and realized benefits associated with this certification, at these two points in time. Demographically, the people with certification and those not pursuing certification did not exhibit any significant differences in either time period. Analyses indicate that feeling good and being good are the main motivators but participants pursuing certification in 2014 reported lower levels of motivations and received more benefit than those in 2004. Comparing responses as to why professionals pursue voluntary PM certification across a decade span, gives us an indication of how these perceptions may be changing with the increased popularity of the certification. We compare these findings to similar studies examining other volunteer certifications and conclude by discussing the potential impact of these changes from the perspective of the individuals seeking certification, the occupation, and certifying organizations.     

Architecture,Environment, History: Questions and Consequences

There is increasing interest among architectural historians in addressing environmental concerns on both historical and theoretical terms. Simultaneously, other fields have been looking to architectural scholarship to understand the historical relationship between the built and the natural environment. For architectural historians, and others, this has also involved correlating the shifting discourse on environment with a history of architectural transformations and disciplinary expansions. These engagements have made clear that the environmental history of architecture does not simply add more objects to the historical database, but also changes the terms of historical analysis, as new matters of concern and new conceptual frameworks come to the fore. This paper gathers together a dialogic set of projections from scholars responding to the question of how we might newly understand the historical relationship between the built and the natural environment, and the opportunities and challenges this new phase presents to scholars, design researchers, and architects.     

Notes on ANT for designers: ontological,methodological and epistemological turn in collaborative design

This article aims to explore how ANT might help us to rethink collaborative and participatory design (C&PD) practices through converting Bruno Latour's call for risky accounts to a call for design things together. What if ANT starts to be in the business of designing new pieces of technology and not just actor-network accounts of them? What would the design process and its outcomes look like? In response to these questions and to the challenge of co-habitation as vital condition for our technical democracy, I propose three turns in C&PDs. The first is ontological and suggests to design actor networks and to look for ways to make these networks visible. The second is methodological and suggests reimagining co-design as actor networking in public, aided by a much-needed cartography of design. The last is epistemological: it is concerned with what knowledge should inform action in the design process, and it proposes to the idea of the designer as an agnostic Prometheus.     

一次基于理性调研分析的评价尝试--以重庆市三峡广场为例

在以特定理论为依据,使用特定方法对特定内容进行调研分析的前提下对选定目标的评价过程使本文成为一次追求理性评价的尝试,其目的是为了能对促进专业评价系统的健康发展略有裨益。在此选定的评价目标为重庆市沙坪坝区三峡广场。     

国际化城市解读:概念、理论与研究进展

在全球化背景下,世界城市体系逐渐形成,城市国际化也已成为当代全球经济和城市发展的主流现象.研究针对当前国内对国际化城市的理解出现偏差的问题,在对国际化城市的相关理论研究进行系统梳理的基础上,追溯国际化城市概念的发展演变,对其定义、特征.类型和相关理论进行了总结,并对当前国际化城市研究领域的主要进展进行了综述,以期揭示国...     

Pretest-posttest field studies on psychological restoration: a descriptive review and reflections for the future

Almost four decades ago, Attention Restoration Theory and Stress Recovery Theory postulated that nature could help people to recover from the attentional fatigue and the emotional negative outcomes coming from their daily performance. Since then, these theories have inspired a great amount of research. In this review, 19 restoration pretest-posttest field studies were selected. A systematic analysis of the papers was conducted using two rating tools to assess the quality of the studies and to detect their main strengths and weaknesses. The results allowed us to synthesise the results of this sample of studies, to reflect about the nature of the research conducted until today and to point to some issues and challenges that might be addressed in future studies.     

Non-profit Housing Influencing,Leading and Dominating the Unitary Rental Market: Three Case Studies

The distinction between dual rental systems and unitary rental markets is refined and developed. In particular, unitary rental markets are defined as markets in which barriers to non-profit providers competing on the rental market are removed, reserving the term ‘integrated rental markets’ for markets in which non-profit providers are sufficiently developed to be able to compete without the need for invasive regulation. The study also develops the distinction made in previous work between markets in which non-profit providers influence, lead and dominate the market. Case studies are then presented: Switzerland, where non-profit renting is weakly influencing, Sweden where it is leading, and the Netherlands where it is dominating. It is concluded that while in both the Netherlands and Sweden there is evidence of continual deregulation consistent with a tendency from unitary to integrated markets, there is no evidence of consistent change in that direction and even signs of some retrograde changes.     

Planning history research in China: past,present, and future

Chinese planning history research has gradually developed out of architectural and construction history. Its main foci have been the periodization of planning practice and the long-term evolution in the form of modern cities. So far, there has been little work on the main body of practice, planning procedure, implementation, and effectiveness. The authors argue that it is time to shift the approach of planning history and explore how it can best contribute at a practical level to the theory and practice of planning in China.     

Preserving Community through Radical Collaboration: Affordable Housing Preservation Networks in Chicago,Washington, DC,and Denver

Collaborative planning efforts to address complex problems such as affordable housing and climate change traditionally manifest as government-led processes meant to gain legitimacy and engage with multiple types of expertise. These types of processes, however, can leave nonprofit actors constrained by the policy priorities of government-led collaborations due to their ability to reproduce existing power relations. Using a qualitative case-study approach of affordable housing preservation networks in Chicago, Washington, DC, and Denver, we argue that preservation of affordable housing can benefit from what we call radical collaboration. We define radical collaboration as an animated network of actors working towards a shared frame of collective action. It is an approach, often led by community-oriented non-governmental organizations, that seeks to transform the ways disadvantaged groups access the city. Actors in the collaboration bring diverse resources that include funding, data, regulatory power, and portfolio-wide information to solve building-level and broader policy challenges.     

寄畅园的始建年代、沿革分期与重要议题

从寄畅园的始建年代、历史沿革和重要议题3个方面,论述寄畅园作为个案研究的价值与意义。1）采用史源学、年代学和微观史学等方法,考证寄畅园始建于1527年。2）将寄畅园490年的历史分为9个时期,论述各时期的关键史实和风格特征。3）从家史与国史、造园与改园、南巡与写仿、茶曲与书画、保护与利用5个方面,分析寄畅园的重要议题。最后探讨了“寄畅园学”的开展方式。     

The new economic geography: Past,present and the future

This article presents a summary of our conversation on the past, present and future of the new economic geography, which took place with the help of an interlocutor in San Juan, Puerto Rico in November 2002. Following the introduction, we explain what the new economic geography is, and we describe some basic models. The discussion of its various critical aspects is presented subsequently, and the article concludes with the discussion of future issues and challenges facing the field.JEL Classification: O41, R12We thank Maria Makabenta, the guest-editors of the journal and an anonymous reviewer for valuable comments on earlier drafts. The first author is grateful to Grants in Aid for COE Research 09CE2002 and Scientific Research S 13851002 (Japanese Ministry of Education and Science).     

A relational perspective on the walking activity in urban spaces: Shaping,transformation, and interrelations

New walking studies have been concerned with the multiplicity of pedestrian experiences. Some consider walking as an activity that unfolds as part of social life, allowing people to create relationships with others, where multiple walking types can be identified depending on these relations. Some contributions, inspired by actor-network theory (ANT), suggest understanding this activity through a networked perspective that associates human and non-human actors, with a focus on their various and dynamic relations between them. The focus on stabilized networks, which emphasizes the recurrence of these relations, helps in identifying and extending themultiplicity of walking activity experience and emerging types. Despite this potential, ANT contributions are still limited. This paper aims to present the ANT potential in unpacking the multiplicity of the walking activity. It utilizes the case of Dahiyat Al Hussain park in Jordan and applies an ANT-inspired ethnographic approach to unpackwalking. It uses desk research, in-depth interviews, go-along interviews, and observations to engage with participants’ views and experiences. By tracing the recurring relational patterns, the paper identifies three instances when walking practice can be considered as stabilized during network shaping, transformation, and interrelations. These stabilizations provide a nuanced perspective into the multiplicity of walking practices.