scholarly journals (The Hidden City) Between the border and the vacuum: the impact of physical environment on aspects of social sustainability

Author(s):  
E. Douvlou ◽  
D. Papathoma ◽  
I. Turrell
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Massoomeh Hedayati ◽  
Aldrin Abdullah ◽  
Mohammad Javad Maghsoodi Tilaki

There is continuous debate on the impact of house quality on residents’ health and well-being. Good living environment improves health, and fear of crime is recognised as a mediator in the relationship between physical environment and health. Since minimal studies have investigated the relationship, this study aims to examine the impact of the house quality on fear of crime and health. A total of 230 households from a residential neighbourhood in Malaysia participated in the study. Using structural equation modelling, the findings indicate that housing quality and fear of crime can account for a proportion of the variance in residents’ self-rated health. However, there is no significant relationship between housing quality and fear of crime. Results also show that fear of crime does not mediate the relationship between housing quality and health. This study suggests that the environment-fear relationship should be re-examined theoretically.  


Author(s):  
AJung Moon ◽  
Shalaleh Rismani ◽  
H. F. Machiel Van der Loos

Abstract Purpose of Review To summarize the set of roboethics issues that uniquely arise due to the corporeality and physical interaction modalities afforded by robots, irrespective of the degree of artificial intelligence present in the system. Recent Findings One of the recent trends in the discussion of ethics of emerging technologies has been the treatment of roboethics issues as those of “embodied AI,” a subset of AI ethics. In contrast to AI, however, robots leverage human’s natural tendency to be influenced by our physical environment. Recent work in human-robot interaction highlights the impact a robot’s presence, capacity to touch, and move in our physical environment has on people, and helping to articulate the ethical issues particular to the design of interactive robotic systems. Summary The corporeality of interactive robots poses unique sets of ethical challenges. These issues should be considered in the design irrespective of and in addition to the ethics of artificial intelligence implemented in them.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 67-98
Author(s):  
Nicoletta Setola ◽  
Eletta Naldi ◽  
Grazia Giulia Cocina ◽  
Liv Bodil Eide ◽  
Laura Iannuzzi ◽  
...  

Objectives, Purpose, or Aim: This article investigates whether the physical environment in which childbirth occurs impacts the intrapartum intervention rates and how this might happen. The study explores the spatial physical characteristics that can support the design of spaces to promote the health and well-being of women, their supporters, and maternity care professionals. Background: Medical interventions during childbirth have consequences for the health of women and babies in the immediate and long term. The increase in interventions is multifactorial and may be influenced by the model of care adopted, the relationships between caregivers and the organizational culture, which is made up of many factors, including the built environment. In the field of birth architecture research, there is a gap in the description of the physical characteristics of birth environments that impact users’ health. Method: A scoping review on the topic was performed to understand the direct and indirect impacts of the physical environment on birth intervention rates. Results and Discussion: The findings are organized into three tables reporting the influence that the physical characteristics of a space might have on people’s behaviors, experiences, practices and birth health outcomes. Eight building spaces that require further investigation and research were highlighted: unit layout configuration, midwives’ hub/desk, social room, birth philosophy vectors, configuration of the birth room, size and shape of the birth room, filter, and sensory elements. Conclusions: The findings show the importance of considering the physical environment in maternity care and that further interdisciplinary studies focused on architectural design are needed to enrich the knowledge and evidence on this topic and to develop accurate recommendations for designers.


Author(s):  
Марина В. Поленкова

The article substantiates the relevance of sustainable development in modern business settings. The study provides calculation of indices of economic, environmental and social sustainability of regions in the 2017–2019 period along with suggesting an algorithm for a multifactor dynamic regression modeling method application. Within the scope of this research, the impact of agribusiness companies’ performances on economic, environmental and social sustainability of regions has been measured to integrate them as the key elements of aggregated indices of regional sustainable development. The greatest influence among the studied indicators on the economic, ecological and social sustainability of the region was revealed. To attain the research agenda, a methodological approach based on the calculation of indices and growth rates for relevant economic, social and environmental indicators has been employed. The findings reveal that the greatest impact on regional economic sustainability have the following indicators: total output of roots, tubers, vegetables and cucurbits produced by food manufacturing companies of all categories; the crop area for harvesting grain and grain legumes; total output of industrial crops; the area for forage crops harvesting. The greatest impact on environmental regional sustainability is attributed to the following indicators: the crop area for harvesting roots, tubers, vegetables and cucurbits; the area where the pesticides were applied. The greatest impact on social regional sustainability among all indicators under study has been demonstrated by the output of grain and grain legumes and the crop area for harvesting industrial crops. Based on the research findings, in the context of agribusiness strategic planning, the study provides a reasoned argument as to the critical need to adhere to the basic principles of sustainable development to ensure further socioeconomic growth in rural areas.


2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (Vol 19, No 3 (2020)) ◽  
pp. 558-575
Author(s):  
Nataliia KUZMYNCHUK ◽  
Viktoriia YEVTUSHENKO ◽  
Tetiana KUTSENKO ◽  
Oleksandra TEROVANESOVA

The article assesses the level of competitiveness of enterprises over time using the local taxonomic indicators of the development of production, financial, marketing and social sustainability and total integrated indicator of the state of sustainable competitiveness. The methodical approach to the assessment of the level of sustainable enterprise competitiveness and the impact of organizational and managerial potential on the sustainable enterprise competitiveness is improved. Conceptual bases of creation of organizational and managerial potential of sustainable enterprise competitiveness are developed. The authors propose a scientific and practical approach to modelling the influence of organizational and managerial potential on the overall integrated indicator of sustainable enterprise competitiveness, which centers on the identification of possible development scenarios shaped by organizational and managerial factors determining the efficiency of ensuring sustainable competitiveness of machine-building enterprises. Substantiation is provided for the creation of a mechanism ensuring the sustainable enterprise competitiveness that takes into account available organisational and managerial potential as the basis for making quality managerial decisions on improving the adaptability of enterprises to difficult and changing external conditions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdullah Alhawsawi ◽  
Majid Sarvi ◽  
Milad Haghani ◽  
Abbas Rajabifard

Modelling and simulating pedestrian motions are standard ways to investigate crowd dynamics aimed to enhance pedestrians’ safety. Movement of people is affected by interactions with one another and with the physical environment that it may be a worthy line of research. This paper studies the impact of speed on how pedestrians respond to the obstacles (i.e. Obstacles avoidance behaviour). A field experiment was performed in which a group of people were instructed to perform some obstacles avoidance tasks at two levels of normal and high speeds. Trajectories of the participants are extracted from the video recordings for the subsequent intentions:(i) to seek out the impact of total speed, x and yaxis (ii) to observe the impact of the speed on the movement direction, x-axis, (iii) to find out the impact of speed on the lateral direction, y-axis. The results of the experiments could be used to enhance the current pedestrian simulation models.


2021 ◽  
pp. 108482232110588
Author(s):  
Jihye Kim ◽  
Jiyeong Lee ◽  
Jihye Park ◽  
Hakseong Kim ◽  
Ingyu Yoo

This review examined whether the physical environment can change the cognitive function of the elderly and categorized the specific environmental types. Four databases, CINAHL, Embase, PubMed, and PsycINFO, were searched for relevant literature published as of December 2020. The framework used was proposed by Arksey and O’Malley, which includes a 5-stage review process. A total of 12 studies were examined. The physical environments with similar characteristics, among all the environmental elements, were grouped together into 4 categories: residential density and road connectivity, limited living space, urban/rural, and care facilities. Residential density and road connectivity, limited living space, and care facilities were found to have a significant effect on the cognitive function of the elderly. However, there was no significant effect on the cognitive function of the elderly when comparing the urban and rural environments. Although studies on environments that affect the cognitive function of the elderly are still ongoing, the ones analyzing specific environments in detail are insufficient. With the increasing importance of the role played by the environment in the cognitive impairment of the elderly, detailed studies on specific environments among the various environmental factors surrounding the elderly, such as this study, should be conducted more actively.


Author(s):  
Paul Donehue

This chapter evaluates the impact of commodification of land and housing on the sustainability of the residential built environment. Commodification, an institutionalized practice in the western industrialized world, refers to the capacity of individuals to trade land and housing freely in the marketplace.  This practice is so commonplace that it rarely undergoes any fundamental analysis in terms of its potential impacts. In order to consider the appropriateness of commodification to sustainable communities this chapter examines its effect on three factors identified as being important to their viability: the existence of a commonly held normative framework; the capacity of a community to reinforce or discourage individual behaviour, and; the need for appropriate resource requirements.  The commodification of residential land and housing is found to encourage effects that may negatively impact upon the environmental and social sustainability of communities, and to potentially lead to their re-absorption into a less sustainable surrounding context. The paper also identifies a tendency of social and legal structures to protect the operation of the free market, which may act to undermine the capacity of communities to achieve self determination. Finally, it is suggested that the types of resources required by a community as a consequence of commodification may be inappropriate to the maintenance of long-term sustainability.


2018 ◽  
pp. 371-389
Author(s):  
Terri Zborowsky ◽  
Mary Jo Kreitzer

An optimal healing environment is created through the deep and dynamic interplay between people, place, process and culture. Over 1,000 papers have been published linking the physical environment to outcomes related to patients and staff. Integrative nurses are well positioned to be leaders in the planning of healing spaces. This chapter defines “healing environment”; describes research on the impact of the designed environment; and discusses the effects of such factors as nature, daylight, positive distractions, aesthetics (including color), and an ambient environment on health and wellbeing. A case study of an optimal healing environment using North Hawaii Community Hospital is presented.


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