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West European Housing Systems in a Comparative Perspective gives an overview of the results of almost 20 years of international comparative housing research, carried out by the author and his colleagues at OTB Research Institute for the Built Environment. The articles give evidence of the transition from descriptive analysis to theoretical exploration and the growing relevance of methodology during these years. The results provide deeper insight into comparative research methodologies and the viability of existing theories as a framework for analysing differences and similarities in the development of housing systems in West European countries. One of the key issues is the practicability of this framework in future policy making. Especially Kemeny’s theory on rental markets appears to offer a valuable framework to evaluate policy strategies. Therefore the book is not only relevant to academics but also to policy-makers.
Our world is continuously changing as new technologies are developed, demographic patterns evolve and new social and political configurations emerge. However, most people would agree that, not unlike the time of the Industrial Revolution, the rate of change has accelerated over the last few decades. It is certainly the case of many economic activities, where the trend towards globalization, supported by a faster diffusion of knowledge and information, economies of scale, the opening of borders and improved transport networks, has induced a spatial redistribution of production and ownership. Until recently, the concomitant economic growth eased the way towards the necessary reorganization, bu...
Social rented housing in Britain is undergoing radical reform - often inspired by European experiences. This timely report provides a comparative analysis of the social rented sector in seven European countries. Combined with analysis of labour market and social security systems, it challenges the assumptions behind the British reform agenda. Social market or safety net?: analyses the ownership, allocation, pricing and financing of the social rented sector in seven European countries; presents the first comparative data on the social composition of the main tenures; highlights the comparative poverty of tenants of social rented housing in the UK compared with their European counterparts; links housing to social security systems; provides a critique of the current reform agenda in the UK
How can we develop a scientific basis for architectural, urban and technical design? When can a design be labelled as scientific output, comparable with a scientific report? What are the similarities and dis-similarities between design and empirical research, and between design research, typological research, design study and study by design? Is there a need for a particular methodology for design driven study and research? With these questions in mind, more than forty members of the Faculty of Architecture of the Delft University of Technology have described their ways of study and research. Each chapter shows the objectives, the methodology and its implementation in search for a deeper knowledge of design processes and an optimal quality of the design itself. The authors - among them architects, urban planners, social scientists, lawyers, technicians and information scientists – have widely differing backgrounds. Nevertheless, they share a great deal. The central focus is a better understanding of design processes, design tools and the effects of design interventions on issues such as utility, aesthetics meaning, sustainability and feasibility.
Human Settlement Development is a component of Encyclopedia of Institutional and Infrastructural Resources in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. The Theme on Human Settlement Development deals, in nine parts and four volumes , with a myriad of issues of great relevance to our world such as: Urban Sustainability and the Regional City System in the Asia Pacific; Peri-Urbanization: Zones of Rural - Urban Transition; Urban Sustainability: Theoretical Perspectives on Integrating Economic Development and the Environment; Rural Sustainability; Using Foreign Direct Investment to Improve Urban Environmental Infrastru...
Thanks to reality and the stubborn resistance of history to accommodate urban planning, often cities of about the same size wind up fairly close to each other and, although they do not merge or in other ways behave as one entity, they become co-dependent either formally or informally in terms of identity if not its services. Meijers presents here his doctoral dissertation, which was undertaken with the support of an urban research project in The Netherlands. He describes polycentric urban regions and their nearly universal quest for synergy, the division of labor of one set of cities in the Randstad, Flemish Diamond and RheinRuhr areas, moving from a "central places" theory too a network model, realizing the potential of a polycentric urban region, abandoning the idea that adding up small cities makes a metropolis, and synthesizing theoretical and case study information.
Outside the United States, the idea of a consumer housing subsidy is a highly developed concept. Housing allowances, shelter allowances, rent allowances - or rent rebates as they are called - have been paid out on a larger scale for longer periods of time on an entitlement basis, with a much greater variety of rationales than in the United States. As the United States moves ahead with its demonstration program, it is timely to examine and evaluate foreign experiences with the consumer housing approach.E. Jay Howenstine addresses common questions that have puzzled many policymakers: How do consumer housing subsidies work? For tenants? Homeowners? Builders? And government officials? Gathered h...