scholarly journals Challenges to national urban policies in the Netherlands

2008 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 178-190
Author(s):  
Jan van der Meer ◽  
Erik Braun

Abstract Recently, a new consensus about the role of cities as the motors of the regional, national and European economy has emerged. However, there is also substantial evidence that social problems are growing in many cities. Linking economic competitiveness to increasing social inclusion is a crucial challenge for policy-makers at all levels of government. The article intends to shed light on the way the Dutch central government tries to support cities to develop into sustainable, vital, complete and competitive entities. As response to a powerful plea by the largest cities themselves, an integrated policy (linking spatial, economic, social, environmental and safety policies) explicitly focused on cities, was given shape. Prime issues are covenants between central government and each city, based on tailor-made long-term strategies, including measurable objectives. To get a clear picture of the policy’s effectiveness – after 13 years of experience – appears to be difficult. Reviewers argue that a lot of aspects could be improved. For the current phase most of these comments have been taken into account.

2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (2-4) ◽  
pp. 281-293
Author(s):  
Marieke Liem ◽  
Jan Maarten Elbers

In recent decades, the number of long-term detainees held worldwide has increased significantly. Academics and policy makers have begun to challenge the widespread use and effectiveness of such severe sentences, however. This article aims to shed light on the role of human rights in imposing and executing long-term custodial sentences. There appears to be tension between ensuring that human rights are respected and provision of security through the incapacitation of offenders. This tension can only be understood properly in the context of contemporary risk-management associated with increased punitiveness.


1999 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 491-522
Author(s):  
Brady Coleman ◽  
Robert Beckman

AbstractIntegrated coastal management (ICM) programmes are being planned, formulated and implemented in coastal States all over the world. To date, however, ICM has been seen as more in the realm of policy-makers, managers, scientists, coastal resource economists, and others, rather than in the realm of lawyers. This article reveals how law and lawyers should play an absolutely essential role at all stages of the ICM process. Ideally, ICM legal consultants will have a broad range of knowledge and experience in both international legal treaties as well as in certain fundamental national law principles, so that coastal zone policies will be designed and carried out with a critical understanding of the laws and institutions needed for the long-term success of an integrated coastal management programme.


Author(s):  
Nathalie Huegler ◽  
Natasha Kersh

AbstractThis chapter focuses on contexts where public discourses regarding the education of young adults have been dominated by socio-economic perspectives, with a focus on the role of employment-related learning, skills and chances and with active participation in the labour market as a key concern for policy makers. A focus on ‘employability’ alone has been linked to narrow conceptualisations of participation, inclusion and citizenship, arising in the context of discourse shifts through neoliberalism which emphasise workfare over welfare and responsibilities over rights. A key critique of such contexts is that the focus moves from addressing barriers to participation to framing social inclusion predominantly as related to expectations of ‘activation’ and sometimes, assimilation. Key target groups for discourses of activation include young people not in education, employment or training (‘NEET’), while in- and exclusion of migrant and ethnic minority young people are often framed within the complex and contradictory interplay between discourses of assimilation and experiences of discrimination. These developments influence the field of adult education aimed at young people vulnerable to social exclusion. An alternative discourse to ‘activation’ is the promotion of young people’s skills and capabilities that enables them to engage in forms of citizenship activism, challenging structural barriers that lead to exclusion. Our chapter considers selected examples from EduMAP research in the UK, the Netherlands and Ireland which indicate that as well as framing the participation of young people as discourses of ‘activation’, adult education can also enable and facilitate skills related to more activist forms of citizenship participation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (15) ◽  
pp. 8250-8253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Torben C. Rick ◽  
Daniel H. Sandweiss

We live in an age characterized by increasing environmental, social, economic, and political uncertainty. Human societies face significant challenges, ranging from climate change to food security, biodiversity declines and extinction, and political instability. In response, scientists, policy makers, and the general public are seeking new interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary approaches to evaluate and identify meaningful solutions to these global challenges. Underrecognized among these challenges is the disappearing record of past environmental change, which can be key to surviving the future. Historical sciences such as archaeology access the past to provide long-term perspectives on past human ecodynamics: the interaction between human social and cultural systems and climate and environment. Such studies shed light on how we arrived at the present day and help us search for sustainable trajectories toward the future. Here, we highlight contributions by archaeology—the study of the human past—to interdisciplinary research programs designed to evaluate current social and environmental challenges and contribute to solutions for the future. The past is a multimillennial experiment in human ecodynamics, and, together with our transdisciplinary colleagues, archaeology is well positioned to uncover the lessons of that experiment.


2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 543-558 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neale J. Slack ◽  
Gurmeet Singh

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to determine the effect of service quality on customer satisfaction and loyalty and the mediating role of customer satisfaction in the supermarket sector.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 480 supermarket customers participated in an intercept survey in four urban centres of Fiji. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the level of service quality provided by supermarkets, and inferential statistics to determine the gap between customer's service quality expectations and perceptions and to test the research hypotheses.FindingsThe findings indicate service quality of supermarkets is perceived as being unsatisfactory, service quality significantly affects customer satisfaction and loyalty and customer satisfaction partially mediates the relationship between service quality and customer loyalty reducing customer's perceptions of service quality, leading to lower customer loyalty.Practical implicationsThis study provides an indication as to where supermarkets should target their marketing attention and scarce corporate resources and may help in their efforts to service, satisfy, retain and attract more long-term loyal customers in the increasingly competitive supermarket sector. This research could inform government policy makers in sequencing the supermarket sector transformation and assist local supermarkets to adapt to this changing retail landscape.Originality/valueThis study advances our understanding of the effect of service quality on customer satisfaction and loyalty and the mediating role of customer satisfaction in the supermarket sector.


2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 565-578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tsu-Wei Yu ◽  
Lu-Ming Tseng

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the role of commercial long-term care insurance (LTCI) in long-term care (LTC) services, and to elucidate the mediating roles of service quality and relationship satisfaction in the relationship between customization and loyalty. In addition, this study offers important recommendations for policy makers in formulating policy aimed at supporting the industry and regulating its customer relationships in life insurers in Taiwan.Design/methodology/approachStudy participants were policyholders of life insurance in Taiwan with experience in purchasing commercial LTCI. They were investigated through in-depth interviews and surveys. The hypotheses were tested using the structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis of variance.FindingsThe findings of this study are important for policy makers in formulating policy aimed at supporting the industry and regulating its customer relationships.Originality/valueThis study represents the first attempt to investigate the role of LTCI in LTC services in Taiwan. Likewise, this study improves our understanding of the main issues relating to the effect of customization on policyholder loyalty, and the partially mediating role of service quality and relationship satisfaction in the insurance marketing context.


Subject Balance of powers in Mexico. Significance Since taking office last year, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) and his National Renovation Movement (Morena) have taken several measures to make savings in the public sector and to allocate resources to tackling poverty and corruption. Such goals enjoy widespread support, but some of the mechanisms employed to achieve them are concentrating power with the central government. The areas most affected include constitutionally autonomous entities within the administration, other branches of government such as the judiciary, and state governments. Impacts Given the role of poorly paid public servants in state capture, salary cuts may prove counterproductive in fighting corruption. Without a system that impartially investigates, prosecutes and sanctions wrongdoing by public servants, corruption will not abate. Centralisation will strengthen the administration initially but leave it vulnerable in the long term when things do not work as intended.


2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 248-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Kontowski ◽  
Madelaine Leitsberger

European universities responded in different ways to the ‘refugee crisis’ of 2015. Some subscribed to the agenda of higher education (HE) as a universal human right, while others stressed different long-term benefits of offering access to it. Yet, the unprecedented sense of moral urgency that guided immediate declarations of support and subsequent actions has largely remained unaddressed. With the crisis becoming a new reality for many countries, HE has a role to play in the social inclusion of refugees, even in countries that were not attractive destinations for refugees in the past. In this article, we provide an overview of the reasons why HE institutions supported refugees, and present the results of an empirical study of Poland and Austria during the 2015–2016 academic year. We then evaluate those first responses utilizing parts of Ager and Strang’s framework of integration, and discuss issues of institutional readiness, capabilities and the public role of HE stemming from this comparison. Our findings suggest that reasons such as acknowledgement of basic rights, or utilizing social capital are insufficient to explain and understand strong integrative support measures. We propose that refugee support by HE institutions is both better understood and promoted through the language of hospitality.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 230
Author(s):  
Robist Hidayat

<p><em>Abstra</em><em>k</em><strong><em> -</em></strong> <strong>Kesehatan merupakan faktor penting  kehidupan, tak terkecuali  kaum urban di perkotaan besar di Indonesia, banyak permasalahan terjadi, prasarana idak memadai, kehidupan yang buruk menimbulkan masalah serius baik sekarang dan masa yang akan datang. Salah satu bagian kaum urban adalah pemuda, merupakan kaum di antara anak-anak dan juga dewasa. Sehingga di harapkan memiliki solusi untuk menghadapi permsaalahan tersebut.</strong><strong> </strong><strong>Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk melihat bagaiman peranan pemuda mengkaji permasalahan yang terjadi sehingga bisa mendapatkan solusi sederhana untuk mengatasi permasalahan kaum urban diperkotaan besar. Adapun metode yang digunakan penulis yakni metode deskriptif, mengkaji serta menganalisis literasi-literasi yang ada dan menyimpulkan menjadi sebuah solusi dari permasalahan yang penulis ungkapkan. Adapun hasil dari penelitian ini ,bahwa permasalahan kaum urban terletak pada tidak adanya program yang jelas serta terperinci secara baik, baik itu dari pemerintah daerah maupun pusat. Sehingga hal ini menjadi permasalahan bersama bukan salah satu pihak semata. Adapun yang bisa pemuda berikan solusi: yakni mencangkup program dan juga kebijakan, program yang di berikan yakni terdiri 3 tahap,</strong><strong> </strong><strong>yaitu: jangka pendek, menengah dan panjang. Adapun alasannya yaitu program tersebut di  terapkan sesuai dengan kebutuhan kaum urban serta kebijakan yang  merupakan wewenang dari pemerintah. Bisa disimpulkan, pemuda memiliki peranan penting dalam mengkaji ataupun memberikan solusi yang terbaik untuk kesehatan kaum urban.</strong></p><p><em>Abstract </em><strong>- Health is an important factor of life, including urban in large urban areas in Indonesia, many problems occur, infrastructure is inadequate, a bad life causes serious problems both now and in the future. One part of the urban community is youth, is a family among children and also adults. So that it is expected to have a solution to deal with these problems. This study aims to see how the role of youth examines the problems that occur so that they can get a simple solution to overcome urban problems in large cities. The method used by the author is descriptive method, reviewing and analyzing existing literacy and concluding to be a solution to the problems that the writer reveals. The results of this study, that the problem of urbanites lies in the absence of a clear and well-detailed program, both from the local and central government. So this matter becomes a common problem, </strong><strong>not</strong><strong> only one part. As for what the youth can provide a solution: namely covering the program and also the policy, the program provided is consisting of</strong><strong> </strong><strong>3 stages, namely: short, medium and long term. The reason is that the program is implemented in accordance with the needs of the urbanites and policies that are the authority of the government. It can be concluded, youth have an important role in assessing or providing the best solution for urban health.</strong></p><p><strong><em>Keywords</em></strong> – <em>Role of Youth, </em><em>Urban Community Health, Problems, Programs</em><em></em></p>


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Melo Brito

Universities are increasingly acting as promoters of innovation, economic growth and regional development, a trend that has attracted the attention of both policy makers and researchers. The objective of this paper is to contribute to a deeper understanding of the role of higher education institutions as dynamic promoters of growth and development. The University of Porto is used as a case study to explore how universities can act as innovation ecosystems leaders and integrators. The main contributions of the paper are threefold. First, the case puts in evidence a key success factor: the talent to transform the knowledge produced by universities into valuable solutions for companies and other organisations. Second, links between universities and industry must assume a long-term and relational nature rather than an intermittent and transactional character. Finally, the success of university-based ecosystems depends on the integration of a diversity of actors, resources and competences. This means that a sustainable strategy of innovation and knowledge valorisation requires an approach that fosters both internal and external networking.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document