International comparison of social housing management in Western Europe

This article provides an overview of social housing management in seven West-European countries. In order to place the concept of housing management in context and allow comparison, housing management is classified according to technical, social and financial aspects of management. Housing management has become increasingly independent and the financial ties are becoming looser in nearly all of the seven investigated countries. Even though governments still play a major role in Europe with respect to the granting of subsidies, the non-profit institutions have to entirely rely on the capital market in order to obtain the required funds. However, in many cases intermediary organisations are still responsible for attracting loans. Peter Boelhouwer is a senior research at the OTB Research Institute for Housing, Urban and Mobility Studies, Delft University of Technology. His research focus has been on general housing policy, housing finance and comparative housing research. This paper is based on two recent OTB-studies about the social rented sector in Western Europe. The first study was written by Birgitta van de Ven and was published in 1995 in the Dutch series “Volkshuisvestingsbeleid en Bouwmarkt” (26). The title of this report is “Housing systems in Europe: A comparative study of housing management”. The second study (Boelhouwer, 1996) is titled “Financing the social rented sector in Western Europe”, and is published in the series Housing and Urban Policy Studies. This project was carried out by the OTB in cooperation with the School of the Built Environment of the De Montfort University in Leicester (UK). This cooperation forms part of the Centre for Comparative Housing Research.     

Themes and contradictions in housing management: An analysis of bureaucratic discourse

The aim of this paper is to examine the ways in which housing management is socially constructed through analysis of the language and meaning used in one policy document, the Housing Management Standards Manual, produced by the Chartered Institute of Housing. Four recurrent themes are identified in the Manual which illustrate the ways in which language is used to construct the nature of the housing management task and build the professional and organizational structure which provides the framework for relations between housing managers and tenants. An analysis of the document illustrates the impact of contextual factors such as economic change, government policy and the restructuring of public sector management, which are facing housing management in Britain. The research on which this paper is based was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. Lise Saugeres worked as a Research Associate with Bridget Franklin and David Clapham in the Centre for Housing Management and Development at Cardiff University on a two-year project on ‘the social construction of the occupational role of housing management’, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. She has recently obtained her Ph.D. from Manchester and has now been appointed as a Lecturer in Human Geography in Plymouth.     

Tackling crime and vandalism on post-war housing estates: The Dutch approach

This paper is based on two papers presented at the Paris conference, “Housing debates—Urban challenges”, 3–6 July 1990. Our research is part of a large-scale research project being conducted at the Research Institute for Policy Sciences and Technology (OTB) at the University of Delft into the problems of vandalism and crime on housing estates. This research is sponsored by the Ministries of Justice and Home Affairs, and affiliated to the research program of Urban Networks.     

Economic impacts of subsidized housing relocation

In recent years increased emphasis has been placed on use of “tenant-based” housing subsidies for acquisition of market-rate housing that is more economically and racially integrated than traditional “project-based” public housing. In this article, we model the short-term economic effects upon various groups of a hypothetical program in which low-income families move from inner-city public housing to spatially dispersed Section 8 rental housing. Using cross-section data from the Chicago region, impacts are computed for two of these groups. Preliminary results indicate that the short-term net economic impact of this hypothetical housing relocation is negative, that these impacts have a spatial character, and that there is a potential tradeoff between tenant benefits, housing subsidies from society and housing integration. Received: 20 January 1998 / Accepted: 30 November 1998     

Comparative analysis of drinking water quality of different origin based on the results of integrated bioassay

The quality of water from public drinking water supply system, from artesian wells in Kiev and bottled non-carbonated drinking water produced by various companies was investigated using a set of animal and plant test organisms. The integral index—a total toxicity index which allowed researchers to classify water into different categories from “safe” to “highly hazardous” served as a water quality evaluation criterion.     

Hazard potential of zones of weakness in gravity dams under impact loading conditions

Dam constructions worldwide are designed and constructed in view of the strictest safety aspects for all static and dynamic load cases. As experience shows, however, formation of cracks in the “homogeneos concrete” as well as unsatisfactory compound behavior of lift joints are not to be excluded. These zones of weakness especially on the upstream side of the dam—exposed to high water pressure (static and dynamic)—represent an increased risk of safety. The main investigation, apart from the computation of the dynamic effects on the dam as a global structure, focuses on the stability analysis of a pressure-water filled crack configuration subjected to “dynamic loading” in the form of seismic action on the dam-reservoir-system and alternatively by “impact spot-loading” within sectors of the reservoir. A fracture mechanics based analysis shows an excessive potential of damage for the afflicted structure.     

Social housing programme of Selangor <Emphasis Type="Italic">Zakat</Emphasis> Board of Malaysia and housing satisfaction

Social housing in Malaysia is provided through the public and private sectors. Recently, the Selangor Zakat Board (SZB) has started to provide social housing in the state of Selangor, Malaysia. Up to 2007, a total of 906 units have been delivered under its different programmes. This paper evaluates these programmes by adopting the housing satisfaction model which is currently used as a customer satisfaction tool for public/private housing in many local governments in the UK and USA. The main purpose of this paper is to identify the types of housing programmes adopted by SZB and examine beneficiaries’ housing satisfaction in each programme on a comparative plane. In order to examine housing satisfaction, five objective components of satisfaction—housing unit features, housing unit support services, the social environment, public facilities and neighbourhood facilities—were analysed through beneficiaries’ levels of satisfaction which were measured by applying a Likert scale. The findings of the paper indicate that SZB has been successful in providing a moderate level of satisfaction with the housing unit. However, the existence of variable levels of satisfaction with other components implies that there is still scope to enhance residents’ satisfaction with those components.     

Housing for health in a post‐welfare state

The theory and practice of social welfare has been radically redefined in every part of the developed world in the past 20 years. However, associated changes in welfare provision vary from state to state. In Britain, housing policy has played a key role in the process of welfare restructuring, spearheading the privatisation programme, promoting the quasi‐market and embracing the welfare alliance. This paper explores the welfare alliance at the interface of housing, health and social care. Specifically, the paper assesses the capacity of a restructured housing system to meet some goals of a recently reorganised health service by supplying accommodation and support for people with health and mobility problems. Drawing on surveys of local authorities and housing associations, public health professionals and housing applicants, the paper outlines the strengths and limitations of using housing provision to meet health needs. The results suggest that housing interventions may secure health gains and so advance the restructuring of health and social care. This role is limited, though, by the impact of an earlier phase of neo‐liberalisation on the social role of housing.     

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.

"Composition" and regularisation of architectural production in contemporary China

The purpose of this paper is to explore how the “Beaux-Arts” “composition” sustained the constitution of design principles for architectural production in China in the last two decades of the twentieth century. “Composition”, a key technique of the “Beaux-Arts” system, is not a simple act of “putting elements together” into a unified whole, but also relates to an array of different “constructions” of architectural knowledge which regulate and sustain the act of design. Through analysing the structure of three “textbooks” published in the early 1980s, this paper examines three aspects of the “constructions”: the setting up of the principles for governing architectural forms, regularisation of design methods and approaches for architectural practice, and the construction of a “tradition” for the expression of “Chineseness”.     

Planning for Inclusion in South Africa: The State’s Duty to Prevent Homelessness and the Potential of “Meaningful Engagement”

In South Africa, evictions which lead to homelessness are unlawful. Municipalities are required to plan proactively to prevent homelessness, yet they persist in failing to do so. This need not be so. The courts have not only clearly delineated the circumstances in which municipality will be required to accommodate evictees, they have set out on what terms, and have given some guidance—through their “engagement” jurisprudence—on how this may be achieved. This article sets out the law applicable to evictions which lead to homelessness and the precise nature of the duties which fall on local authorities to prevent them. It then explores a case study in which, under court-supervision, desperately poor people living in slum-like conditions have been successfully and consensually re-accommodated in safe, clean and sustainable housing.     

A spatial efficiency index proposal: an empirical application to SMEs productivity

Our study introduces a Spatial Efficiency Index. Its definition is based on the traditional concepts of “technology set” and “distance function”, as well as on spatial econometric methods. This index measures productive efficiency in each productive unit in relation to its close environment, instead of comparing each unit with all others. This way both local efficiency patterns and the highest local efficiency inequalities can be identified. An empirical application was developed so as to analyse data from Small and Medium sized Spanish Industrial Enterprises, using nonparametric Data Envelopment Analysis techniques. Our proposal is a contribution to the development of indexes that explicitly include proximity relations—a field with countless research possibilities.     

Stay or Go? Human Behavior and Decision Making in Bushfires and Other Emergencies

The policy of “leave early or stay and defend”, often shortened to the “stay or go” policy, has been the subject of critical review in the Royal Commission that followed the recent disastrous bushfires in Victoria, Australia. The need for people to evacuate or stay and defend their property and protect themselves is a critical life safety decision for many people on days of high bushfire activity. Some limited research has been undertaken into this individual decision making in bushfires. Other fields of emergency management also require people to make similar decisions as to whether to evacuate or stay in a “defend in place” situation. This paper examines research into “stay or go” strategies and decision making performance for high rise buildings, looking for common factors that may inform the bushfire situation and potential reforms for policy. Similarly, research into Hurricane Katrina and the failures to evacuate when mandated provide further insight into factors which can affect or postpone decision making. A number of common improvements related to emergency preparedness, situation awareness and trusted communication systems emerge in all these fields. However, this paper also suggests that this decision making in bushfires is more complex that just two simple options of “stay or go”. A greater understanding of group behavior and socio-cultural factors and their impact on personal decision making is required if more effective emergency management is to occur in the bushfire domain.     

Public Housing as Control: Spatial Policy of Settling Immigrants in Israeli Development Towns

This paper examines the relationship between inter-ethnic power relations and public housing policy for immigrants in Israel since 1948. Based on a comparative analysis of Israeli policy of housing Mizrahi immigrants in the 1950s and Russian immigrants in the 1990s, the paper argues that despite the perceived decline in the state's capacity, the implication of public housing policy has remained unchanged since the 1950s. By moving Jewish immigrants into development towns in sparsely populated and overwhelmingly Palestinian regions of the country, Israeli policy has served to Judaize these regions and to reinforce ethnic stratification among the country's Jewish population. In this manner, Israeli public housing policy was neither consistent with conceptions of post-Second World War public housing policies in welfare states nor with the recent impact of globalization and the free-market dynamics on public housing policies.     

The first fifty years of the Western Regional Science Association: the making of the WRSA brand

In 1954 the Regional Science Association held its first conference in Detroit, Michigan. Seven years later, in 1961, the Western Regional Science Association was founded as one of the four United States-based sections (the Northeastern, the Southern, the Mid-Continent, and the Western). In the 50 years since its founding, the WRSA has met its obligation to promote regional science in Western North America and has gone beyond that initial mandate to promote regional science internationally and to become an association that truly delivers on the somewhat whimsical motto: “The way academic life should be.” In this paper, coauthored by the Association’s three long-term Executive Secretaries, W. W. Rostow’s model of the stages for economic advancement is employed, by analogy, to interpret the historical development of the Western Regional Science Association—and of its distinctive “brand”—over its first half century.     

Mechanisms of large-scale landslides in China

Large-scale landslides in western China are famous for their size, complex formation mechanism and serious destruction. Data were collected from some typical large-scale landslides in mainland China in the 20th century. A number of geo-mechanical models have been identified: the “three sections” model (sliding; tension cracking; shearing), “retaining wall collapse”, “horizontal-pushing” in horizontal strata; large-scale toppling in counter-inclined strata; the creep-bending–shearing model etc. Large-scale rock landslides are generally accompanied by sudden brittle failure of the “locking section” along the potential sliding surface. The paper discusses the importance of this “locking section” which is key to assessing slope geohazard and to the development of control/mitigation measures.     

Foreign street traders working in inner city Durban: Local government policy challenges

“Xenophobia coupled with drunken criminals affects our business. Heavy rain forces us to close. South Africans sometimes threaten to kick us out”—Hair-cutter from the DRC     

Use of gestalt in wayfinding design and analysis of wayfinding process

The authors brought forward the definition of “Gestalt space” and indicated this kind of space can be easily cognized. Three experiments showed that “classification” and “grouping” are the human strategies to solve wayfinding problems. “Similarity” and “Legibility” of the space are advantageous to help people to complete wayfinding tasks. The designer should provide the essential “Legibility” in Gestalt space, by using some techniques such as “break” and “accession” to settle the wayfinding problem. __________ Translated from Architectural Journal, 2007, (5): 89–91 [译自: 建筑学报]     

Inter-regional labor market equilibrium: another pattern of spatial mismatch

The inability of the free market to lead to a balanced regional labor market equilibrium has been explained to a certain extent by the spatial mismatch hypothesis: “housing segregation” explains a deadlock situation where a “center” with high unemployment and low income coexists with “suburbs” with high labor demand and income. The author proposes a framework for a theoretical general equilibrium model that may explain the existence of a spatial equilibrium with inequalities in employment and income in various regions. This model explains the interregional imbalances on the labor demand side due to the changes in relative land prices and agglomeration economies and diseconomies in three separate types of economic sectors. On the labor supply side, the model suggests a pattern of a commuting–migration relationship by which labor migrates for housing reasons while retaining present jobs and commuting back to them. Government intervention through influence on travel costs, education, and land allocation can lead to the diminution of such interregional gaps.     

Reply to the alternative optimal growth controls

Sasaki (2002) argues that: (1) “the agglomeration effect in the (Lai and Yang 2002, (L-Y)) paper is different from the introduction of urban production in Sasaki (1998)”; and (2) the “treatment of public good in the (L-Y) paper is strange,” because the public good provided by owner-residents is only consumed by renter-residents. This reply shows that (1) the agglomeration effect in the L-Y model catches the key results of urban production presented in Sasaki's model; and (2) both renter and owner-residents consuming the public good have been developed in this reply. However, the major conclusions of the L-Y model are still hold. Received: February 2001/Accepted: September 2001