A Systematic Review of Spatial-Temporal Scale Issues in Sociohydrology

Sociohydrology is a recent effort to integrate coupled human-water systems to understand the dynamics and co-evolution of the system in a holistic sense. However, due to the complexity and uncertainty involved in coupled human-water systems, the feedbacks and interactions are inherently difficult to model. Part of this complexity is due to the multi-scale nature across space and time at which different hydrologic and social processes occur and the varying scale at which data is available. This systematic review seeks to comprehensively collect those documents that conduct analysis within the sociohydrology framework to quantify the spatial-temporal scale(s) and the types of variables and datasets that were used. Overall, a majority of sociohydrology studies reviewed were primarily published in hydrological journals and contain more established hydrological, rather than social, models. The spatial extents varied by political and natural boundaries with the most common being cities and watersheds. Temporal extents also varied from event-based to millennial timescales where decadal and yearly were the most common. In addition to this, current limitations of sociohydrology research, notably the absence of an interdisciplinary unity, future directions, and implications for scholars doing sociohydrology are discussed.

European social model - instrument of cohesion between the states of the European Union

The European Union is currently a real catalyst for change regarding the state governance, policy-making and the imposition of social models in the European space. The member States of the European Community have their own ways of developing social policies, which regulate social assistance, social insurance, the organization and functioning of the social services system, etc., yet the European institutions coordinate the adopted regulations and establish common principles, values, and objectives. Nowadays, more and more often, politicians, decision makers, doctrinaire people question the concept of “European social model” and prerogatives for its development. In this context, we set out to analyze the concept and features of the European social model and to identify existing social models at EU level.

Gender, Curiosity, and the Grand Tour

Discussions of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European travel have long tended to over-apply the model of the grand tour. It is increasingly recognized now that many British journeys to the Continent knew different motivations and itineraries, and were made from different subject positions than that of the young male aristocrat. An alternative model proposed for female travelers has its own limitations, however. It presents women as more open-minded than men, with a greater eye for detail and keen to escape patriarchal confinement at home. Yet female travelers’ wish and capacity to offer an alternative to the grand-tourist gaze was limited. Still, travel, travel writing, and publishing offered women a chance to explore new social models and lifestyles and develop new forms of personal independence.

Social Models for Dealing with Inequalities

This chapter compares social models in Europe and Latin America. The goal is to study the interaction between two institutions: on the one hand, pre-distributive (ex ante) institutions, such as the structure and coverage of collective bargaining and, on the other hand, post-distributive (ex post) institutions, such as unemployment protection and social policy. Pre-distributive institutions are important for correcting inequalities in the labour market, because they introduce guidelines for egalitarian wage structures. Post-distributive institutions help to mitigate inequalities generated in the labour market.The methodology is based on statistical analysis of a series of indicators related to pre and post-distributive policies. The results present three types of model: (1) coordinated economies, typical of neo-corporatist Scandinavian countries; (2) mixed economies, typical of Mediterranean systems, and (3) uncoordinated economies, which equate to liberalism and the Latin American ‘structural heterogeneity’ model. It is neo-corporatist coordinated economies that generate the most pre and post-distributive equality. In turn, uncoordinated economies, and Latin American ones in particular, generate more inequalities due to highly informal employment and the weakness of their post-distributive institutions.

Democratising Smart Cities? Penta-Helix Multistakeholder Social Innovation Framework

The smart cities policy approach has been intensively implemented in European cities under the Horizon 2020 programme. However, these implementations not only reduce the interdependencies among stakeholders to technocratic Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) models, but also fail to question the identities of strategic stakeholders and how they prioritise their business/social models. These aspects are putting democracy at stake in smart cities. Therefore, this article aims to unfold and operationalise multistakeholders’ policy frameworks from the social innovation perspective by suggesting the ex-novo penta-helix framework—including public, private, academia, civic society, and social entrepreneurs/activists—to extend the triple and quadruple-helix frameworks. Based on fieldwork action research conducted from February 2017 to December 2018—triangulating desk research, 75 interviews, and three validation workshops—this article applies the penta-helix framework to map out five strategic dimensions related to (i) multistakeholder helix framework and (ii) the resulting business/social models comparatively in three follower cities of the H2020-Replicate project: Essen (Germany), Lausanne (Switzerland), and Nilüfer (Turkey). For each case study, the findings reveal: (i) a unique multistakeholder composition, (ii) diverse preferences on business/social models, (iii) a regular presence of the fifth helix as intermediaries, and (iv) the willingness to experiment with democratic arrangements beyond the hegemonic PPP.