Suchergebnisse

This book questions the why and how of setting up artistic and social practices in interstitial spaces in the city, urban cracks. Urban cracks are conceptualised as in-between time spaces, characterised by an apparent void, where different logics meet and conflict. The lamination of different historically grown layers of meaning and the crossing of conflicting logics in these 'useless' places, are highlighted as significant features which artists and community workers could act upon. The authors discuss the potential of localized artistic and social practices that work with the context of urban cracks, and therefore bring forth significant political meanings. Artists and community workers are both engaged in reading, analysing and translating pertinent developments of society, although their intentions and outcomes are fairly different. This book is the result of a two-year interdisciplinary research project of the University College Ghent: a collaboration between the School of Arts and the Faculty of Education, Health and Social Work

"Historical research into disasters and disaster processing has expanded enormously in recent years. The threat of climate disasters and pandemics is raising awareness that disasters have a major impact on community development. The period 1755-1918 also saw numerous disasters that affected Dutch society, such as the Leiden gunpowder disaster of 1807, several cholera outbreaks and large-scale river floods. Volcanic eruptions and flooding were recurring phenomena in the colonies. And then there were major international disasters, such as the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 and the Spanish flu in 1918. Crisis and Catastrophe examines the influence of these catastrophes on belief in God, solidarity and charity, and local and national identity formation. Attention is also paid to the cultural representation of disasters in literature, paintings and memorial books."

Bull sessions to protect intimate boundaries
Sven da Silva
During research for my MA thesis in Brazil I theorized slum politics by following a community leader. He was often bullying me. After an uncomfortable start of my fieldwork, I became interested in bull sessions, a term that describes well the development of my relationship with the community leader. Bull sessions encourage participants to speak about topics they would normally not talk about, yet participants are primarily concerned with impressing others rather that with the truth. These bull sessions guarded intimate borders. They masked a shared condition, namely that of the painful memories of being from the favela. I use this experience to make the methodological argument that – to create openness and stimulate and adventurous dialogue with informants – ethnographers should engage in bull sessions, but at the same time use their toolbox to separate performance from content. They should transparently place quotes in context for readers to make their own judgment.

Summary: Since it was established by Riek Bakker and Ank Bleeker in 1977, the Bakker & Bleeker bureau (operating as Bureau B+B since 1990) has functioned as a laboratory for the professional community. Designers such as Winy Maas, Adriaan Geuze and Michael van Gessel have worked there and the office was an incubator for design practices such as West 8, Karres en Brands and Rietveld Landscape. The development of Bureau B+B coincides to a large extent with the emancipation of Dutch post-war landscape architecture and urbanism. Self-assured and autonomous, the bureau reintroduced design to the city, from an unexpected angle. It soon ranked among the world|s best, thanks among other things to its design for the Parc de la Villette in Paris (1982), a commission won ex aequo with designers such as Rem Koolhaas and Bernard Tschumi. The bureau has always been interdisciplinary, employing landscape architects, urban planners, architects, land development experts and industrial designers

A little appreciated member of the international community in 2004, Belgium has developed the previous years into a constructive diplomatic element that takes to heart its international responsibility (examples: troops in Lebanon, Afghanistan, Balkans, and an effective diplomatic intervention concerning the Democratic Republic of Congo). Responsibly for this success are called Belgian impartiality, its open ears, imagination and collaboration regarding multilateralism. Furthermore, the EU's enlargement by 10 states is discussed, the rejecting of the European Constitution by France and the Netherlands, and the strengthened position of the BENELUX within the EU. A second topic: relations with the neighboring countries France, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany and Luxembourg. A last item discusses cooperation in multilateral development projects. References. O. van Zijl

The energy transition reflects fundamental changes in energy supply. During that transition, society also expects the high-quality nature of the energy supply to be maintained. The energy transition is therefore confusing and makes people have to deal with uncertainty. They not only experience changes in the energy supply, but also a change from a consumption paradigm (purchasing of energy) to an exploitation paradigm (self-generating and consumption of energy). The objective of the research is to gain insight into whether and how parties (public, private, citizens) are able to involve everyone in a community in the development of renewable energy production and consumption. The thesis' presents the 'analysis framework for steering on public value in sustainable development'. The framework shows what parties do to support the ambition of renewable energy for everyone. It is based, amongst others, on Elinor Ostrom's 'institutional analysis and development framework', on Mark Moore's work on public value, and on the collaborative governance philosophy, in particular Ansell & Gash's 'contingency model of collaborative governance'. The framework provides an instrument for recording and analyzing the input of diverse disciplines in public value creation and in this way combines policy development and system development. The ambition of 'renewable energy for everyone' implies that renewable energy is to be viewed as a 'common-pool resource', one type of goods according to Elinor Ostrom's typology of goods. It has two characteristics. One characteristic is that the use of a good by one is at the expense of the possibilities for the other to also use that good. The other characteristic is that excluding a party from a good is considered to be socially undesirable or unacceptable, and may therefore incur social costs. The analysis framework illustrates that public administrators are committed to ensure access to and developers are committed to unlock renewable energy. For evaluation purposes a 'two-dimensional public ...

If we want to share data, the long-term storage of those data in a trustworthy digital archive is an essential condition. Trust is the basis of storing and sharing data. That trust must be present in the various stakeholders involved. Certification of digital archives can make an important contribution to the confidence of these stakeholders in the digital archives. Ten years ago DANS was assigned the task of developing a Seal of Approval for digital data to ensure that archived data can still be found, understood and used in the future. In 2009 this Data Seal of Approval (DSA) was transferred to an international body, the DSA Board, which has managed and further developed the guidelines and the peer review process ever since. The objectives of the DSA are to safeguard data, ensure high quality and guide reliable management of data for the future without requiring implementation of new standards, regulations or heavy investments. The DSA contains 16 guidelines for applying and verifying quality aspects concerning the creation, storage, use and reuse of digital data. Based on feedback from data archives that applied for a DSA and different case studies we have gained some insight into the benefits of DSA. Still, the impact of having the Seal is not easy to measure. Seal holders usually refer to qualitative benefits in the form of increased awareness of the value of their repositories to their communities, funders and publishers. Ten years down the line we can safely state that the Data Seal of Approval has proven its added value. If we try to look five years into the future, what can we expect? There are different developments: a growing interest in DSA among European research infrastructures, the collaboration between DSA and the ISCU World Data System under the umbrella of the RDA (Research Data Alliance) and the European Commission is showing a growing interest in certification services. The success of DSA also provides the challenge to further professionalize the DSA organization in the coming years, this to enable its community to continue to grow.