Designing social living labs in urban research

Info ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 53-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yvonne Franz
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Knowledge ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Economic Point ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Urban Living ◽  
Urban Research ◽  
Living Labs ◽  
Research Questions

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a more socially centred understanding of living labs for urban research questions by reflecting on current technologically centred and innovation-driven approaches. Design/methodology/approach – The paper takes the form of literature review complemented by conceptual knowledge from practical experiences. Findings – Urban living labs, as they were introduced from a technological and economic point of view, have to be translated into the context of social sciences. By doing so, they may be a promising tool to stimulate co-creation and collaboration also in urban research projects that focus on social research questions and include diverse target groups. Socially centred living labs take into account the local context by developing a space of encounter for the participants in the urban living lab and by implementing a set of living methods that suit both the research design and the local requirements. Originality/value – This paper argues that urban living labs can be a valuable tool in urban research to include researchers, politicians, local stakeholders and residents in an open concept of co-creation. It argues that a locally contextualised design in terms of space and methods is necessary to create an environment of trust and collaboration.

Restart tourism | build the future

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rita Marques
Keyword(s):  
Value Chain ◽  
Great Influence ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Data Systems ◽  
Scientific Publications ◽  
Economic Point ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Impact

PurposeThis viewpoint aims to explore the question: How can we restart and monitor the path towards the tourism of the future?Design/methodology/approachThis paper identifies the progress made at scientific, institutional, political and technological levels, and how it is possible to foresee that we will enter in a new era of tourism indicators.FindingsA significant body of literature clearly demonstrates that tourism cannot be viewed simply from an economic point of view as it has a great influence on sociocultural and environmental dimensions. The impact of tourism and how to ensure its long-term success has been invoked for the last few decades, leading to the direct consideration of sustainability indicators in a wide array of scientific publications. However, despite significant advances, the lack of funding, lack of support or interest from the political community, bureaucracies or lack of methodological guidance and of technical skills along the entire value chain pose clear challenges to the development and adoption of wide data systems to support sustainable tourism policies.Originality/valueThe paper sheds light on the Portuguese position regarding the recovery of the tourism sector in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also highlights the commitment to knowledge and monitoring of sustainability in tourism, articulated at international level, and how this is essential in order to make progress and to overcome the challenges facing the sector. At the same time, it demonstrates how fundamental it is to identify solutions to boost the potential of tourism as an economic, social, environmental and cultural phenomenon.

The role of translators and interpreters in cascading crises and disasters

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 144-156
Author(s):  
David E. Alexander ◽  
Gianluca Pescaroli
Keyword(s):  
Emergency Preparedness ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Qualitative Description ◽  
Economic Point ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Information Strategies ◽  
History Analysis ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Emergency Preparedness And Response

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explain the significance of cascading crises for translators and interpreters, and how their work may be affected by such events. It provides a theoretical basis for analysis and field practice. Design/methodology/approach The authors define cascades and explain how they influence the development of preparedness, mitigation and response. The authors identify key drivers of cascading crises and discuss how they challenge conventional approaches to emergency management. The authors discuss ways in which use of language could be a key factor in crisis escalation. The authors define priorities and operational challenges of cascading crises for translators and interpreters. In terms of methodology, this paper develops a conceptual framework that can be used for future enquiry and case history analysis. Findings The authors provide a qualitative description and synthesis of the key instructions to be used in the field. The authors offer a short list of key questions that can be referred to by linguists and scholars. The authors identify situations in which translation and interpretation are important ingredients in the success of emergency preparedness and response efforts. These include multilingual populations, migrant crises, international humanitarian deployment and emergency communication during infrastructure failures. Research limitations/implications This work has academic value for the process of understanding cascades and practical relevance in terms of how to deal with them. Practical implications Translators and interpreters need to understand cascading crises in order to be prepared for the challenges that such events will present. Social implications Society has become more complex and interconnected, with non-linear cascading escalation of secondary emergencies. Emergency planners and responders need to address this in new ways. Effective communication and information strategies are essential to the mitigation of cascading disaster risk. Originality/value The study of cascading crises from a socio-economic point of view is relatively new, but it is important because society is increasingly dependent on networks that can propagate failure of information supply.

The Indian airline industry – will the flight be smooth?

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rangarajan Srinivasan ◽  
Vindhyalakshmi A. Prasad
Keyword(s):  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Airline Industry ◽  
Subject Area ◽  
Current Situation ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Aviation Industry ◽  
Economic Point ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mba Students ◽  
Detailed Picture

Subject area The case concerns introductory marketing management. Study level/applicability This case is suitable for MBA students. Case overview The case explains the current situation encountered by the airline industry in India. This case gives the reader a detailed picture of the reasons for the growth and the subsequent troubles faced by the Indian aviation industry. Expected learning outcomes The case is aimed at helping the students to analyse a marketing situation both from a macro-economic point of view and from an individual company perspective. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email [email protected] to request teaching notes.

Time had but effaced his image when the show began

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-23
Author(s):  
Frits van Engeldorp Gastelaars
Keyword(s):  
Social Research ◽  
Academic Career ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Critical Event ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Academic School

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to outline the background and the plot of the academic career of Slawomir Magala, particularly from the point of view represented by the author who had co-created significant international conference on critical theory and the sciences of management which triggered off the critical management studies in the British and subsequently global academic research networks. Design/methodology/approach – The content of the research is based on a mixture of a historical account of a conference on the Frankfurt school of social research, observations and participatory observations, qualitative content analysis and a bibliographical case study. Findings – The long-term effects of an international networking event are hard to predict and almost never respect the academic borders and gate keepers. Research limitations/implications – This paper is a very personal point of view. Practical implications – This paper is a case study of academic school emergence. Social implications – This paper is a case study of social and political relevance of managerial research. Originality/value – The unique selling point of this paper is that it is based on a critical event in uncritical sciences.

Determinants of housing prices from an urban economic point of view: evidence from Hungary

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norbert Czinkan ◽  
Áron Horváth
Keyword(s):  
Population Growth ◽  
Housing Stock ◽  
Housing Prices ◽  
Housing Price ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
City Size ◽  
Economic Point ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Urban Economic

Purpose The purpose of the paper is to investigate a cross section of Hungarian settlement-level unit housing prices with a special emphasis on measuring the effect of population and its growth, along with accessibility to the centre of an aggregated spatial unit such as a micro-region, county or region, for the period of 2001-2011. Design/methodology/approach The analysis uses cross-sectional ordinary least squares techniques with Moulton-corrected standard errors. The estimation is guided by the implications of a simplified monocentric urbanized area framework following the model of DiPasquale and Wheaton (1996), and the econometric model is augmented with population growth rate at the settlement level to bridge the theory explaining rents and data base containing prices instead. Findings The location is a key factor in determining housing prices: living 10 min further from the centre results in 11 per cent cheaper housing. When estimating bid-rent curves, results show that it is crucial to control for city size and the income effect. The elasticity of housing price with respect to city size is 0.09 according to our preferred model. Population growth has an asymmetric impact on housing prices: municipalities with positive expected population growth have higher prices today. Practical implications Estimating the quantitative relationship between commuting time and housing price is crucial for a cautious infrastructure development. The benefits of improved roads and faster access could be capitalized in appreciating the housing stock. Estimating the slope of the bid-rent curve is one possible ex ante quantification of the benefits of a public development. Originality/value One contribution of this research is providing empirical evidence to surprisingly limited applied work in the field of (monocentric) urban models using data from the CEE region. Second, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate Hungarian settlement-level unit prices from an urban economic point of view.

Q-method as a tool to facilitate meaningful public engagement with science

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-102
Author(s):  
Stéphanie Gauttier
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
Q Method ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Consensus Conferences ◽  
Public Engagement With Science ◽  
Meaningful Engagement ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Understanding Of Science ◽  
Informed Opinion

Purpose Researchers are expected to find ways to make citizens participate in research to support responsible and open conceptions of science. New methods for engagement need to be found in order to facilitate engagement. The public needs to build its knowledge and be presented with time for reflexion so as to give an informed opinion on a given topic. Traditional consensus conferences are costly, and surveys are not building citizens’ understanding of science. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach The author presents a case where engagement was realized based on Q-method and technique. A research protocol and the results of the engagement are presented. Findings This case shows that an adapted version of Q can lead to meaningful engagement for citizens and relevant data for researchers. Participants enjoy the process and can become advocates for a topic. The data collected allow to map out points of views which can be used to inform policy and research. Originality/value From a practical point of view, this paper suggests a new way to proceed to citizen engagement with science. It also opens research questions related to the use of the method itself.

scholarly journals Being bisexual in contemporary Italy: between stigma and desire of visibility

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Salvatore Monaco
Keyword(s):  
Online Survey ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Sociological Study ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Critical Elements ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Identity Category ◽  
Probabilistic Sample ◽  
Bisexual People

PurposeThe Italian sociological scientific community has shown a limited interest in issues related to bisexuality. The purpose of this paper is to fill the knowledge gap on the subject, showing data of an empirical research conducted online on the Italian bisexual community.Design/methodology/approachThe article is based on a mixed methods online survey on Italian bisexual people, which included 218 interviews. The questionnaire was made up of closed and open-ended questions, to investigate their behaviours, habits and lifestyles.FindingsSocial pressure and lack of understanding by others sometimes make difficult for bisexual people to show themselves openly for what they are, especially in some contexts, such as the word of work. From a sociological point of view, one can argue that one of the tools when bisexual people face the stigma related to bisexuality is to control, often in an obsessive way, the information they provide about themselves, carefully evaluating the contexts in which they can free themselves and the time when they must expose themselves in line with the expectations of the heteronormative society.Research limitations/implicationsThe non-probabilistic sample limits the external validity of the findings. There are also critical elements that characterise social research when transposed online: first, the profiles of the respondents not always are verifiable; second, the digital divide excludes some groups that cannot access the web or involves an over-representation of those who are more familiar with technologies.Originality/valueThe work presented is the first Italian sociological study aimed at deepening the “invisible B” phenomenon of the LGBT acronym in a systematic way. Nowadays bisexuality remains under-researched in social sciences and overall in sociology. Putting “bisexuality” at the centre of the sociological attention appears important to provide serious and scientifically valid data and information useful both to develop the knowledge on this identity category and to contain forms of discrimination and prejudice.

A Black Swan in the district? An IMP perspective on immigrant entrepreneurship and changes in industrial districts

IMP Journal ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matilde Milanesi ◽  
Simone Guercini ◽  
Alexandra Waluszewski
Keyword(s):  
Local Community ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Black Swan ◽  
Network Approach ◽  
Immigrant Entrepreneurship ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Industrial Marketing ◽  
Local Setting ◽  
Industrial Network

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss the changes of the Italian textile district of Prato, considered an exemplary case of the industrial district (ID) model, using a business network perspective. The “Black Swan” metaphor is used to address the changes in the Prato textile district in order to understand whether such changes have been an unexpected and unpredictable phenomenon, or they can be explain with a different theoretical tool-box, namely, that developed by the industrial network approach. Design/methodology/approach – The paper utilizes already published studies on the changes of the textile/fashion companies located to the Prato area. Both studies that have been carried out within an ID approach and those carried out with an Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) point of departure are considered in the research. Both types of studies were utilized to identify empirical observed changes of the producer, respectively user setting that the Prato located companies was related to, including identification of changes affecting both the local setting and the larger network it was related to. Findings – The utilization of the IMP model proposes a learning ground that exceed the local context and open ups of investigations of opportunities and threats stemming from interactions across spatial borders. Analysed from an interactive point of view, in the specific context of Prato, the exploitation of the opportunities given by establishing relationship between natives and migrants actors goes through the creation of interactions among actors representing specific resource combinations and activity structures – within and outside the local community. Originality/value – The paper concerns how the same research object – the changes of the Prato district – appears from another perspective different from the ID theory, namely, the industrial network approach developed by scholars of the IMP Group.

Optimal (N, F) policy for queue-dependent and time-sharing machining redundant system

2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 798-816 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chandra Shekhar ◽  
Madhu Jain ◽  
Ather Aziz Raina ◽  
Javid Iqbal
Keyword(s):  
Sensitivity Analysis ◽  
Performance Prediction ◽  
Performance Metrics ◽  
Fault Tolerant ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Redundant System ◽  
Time Sharing ◽  
Economic Point ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Repair Facility

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the performance metrics of redundant repairable machining system which is applicable in various systems like computer and communication system, manufacturing and production system, etc. Design/methodology/approach In the present investigation, the authors develop Markov model for the system consisting of identical active operating machines which are prone to breakdown. The operating machines are under the care of one permanent repair facility that provides time-sharing basis repair services. The maintenance is facilitated with the provision of standby machines of mixed type and permanent as well as additional repair facility. From the economic point of view, F-policy and N-policy to control the service and arrival of failed machines effectively are included. Findings For the performance analysis of the system in long run, the authors compute steady-state probabilities using product-type solution method recursively. Sensitivity analysis is performed numerically for various parameters by developing code in MATLAB. Social implications The performance prediction done may be helpful for the system designers and decision makers for the improvement of the existing machining systems in various industries. Originality/value Markovian model for the performance prediction of fault tolerant multi-identical operating and standby machines redundant system is developed in generic frameworks by incorporating many noble features which were not all taken together by other researchers working on the same lines. The key concepts incorporated for the modeling of the concerned system is: F-policy, N-policy, time-sharing, and sensitivity analysis of availability and cost function.

Economic sustainability of additive manufacturing

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 353-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mojtaba Khorram Niaki ◽  
Fabio Nonino ◽  
Giulia Palombi ◽  
S. Ali Torabi
Keyword(s):  
Additive Manufacturing ◽  
Cost Reduction ◽  
Performance Indicator ◽  
Organizational Factors ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Economic Sustainability ◽  
Production Volume ◽  
Economic Point ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Significant Cost Reduction

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate additive manufacturing (AM) phenomenon extending previous research results by studying in-depth the economic sustainability of AM technology and bringing out the contextual factors that drive its superior performances in comparison with conventional manufacturing, and justify its adoption in rapid prototyping (RP) from an economic point of view. Design/methodology/approach Data have been collected through a worldwide survey. Respondents were from 105 companies adopting the technology from 23 countries worldwide. Findings The results of this research show that although AM-based prototyping leads to significant cost reduction, it is not as good as conventional manufacturing in terms of the profitability of investment. It also demonstrates how cost reduction depends on production volume and payback period depends on the types of material and scope of AM implementation after controlling for firm size and experience. Research limitations/implications The performance indicator is measured using a Likert scale; however, more reliable conclusion could be made by real amounts. The research also took into account the economic aspects of performance; however, to evaluate the AM technology more comprehensively, other performance measures such as those of social and environmental ones should be considered. Practical implications The paper provides insightful implications for the adoption of AM. In particular, it reveals the contingent performance of the technology in RP. Originality/value This paper contributes to expand the literature by demonstrating how different circumstances affect the performance of AM technologies for prototyping and by linking the operational and organizational factors with its performance.

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