A programme management approach for supporting a transition to integrated flood management in the Netherlands

In the Netherlands and many other developed countries, flood management is transitioning from sectoral engineering approaches to more integrated approaches. The 2.3 billion Euro Room for the River programme plays an important role in this transition, because it is the first large scale infrastructure programme in the Netherlands that breaks with...

Partnering and the traditional: Institutional determinants of governance in Danish construction

Projects have traditionally been constituted by contracts, whose enforcement is held in place by governance mechanisms that involve high degrees of surveillance. In this light, partnering is advocated as a project specific, communicative alternative to this traditional legal coordination process of the construction industry. In a Danish context...

Innovative governance of sustainable urban development: A comparative analysis

More than half of the world population lives in urban areas concentrating and increasing the magnitude of social and environmental impacts. The potential role of cities in a transition to a sustainable society started to be widely recognized after the 1992 Rio conference where the Agenda 21 program was signed. Since then, a number of urban...

Knowledge governance for sustainable rural development: Exploring potentials, characteristics and barriers in the Northern Frisian Woodlands

Rural regions in the Netherlands cope with the challenge of sustainable rural development in a complex network context. There is neither consensus on facts nor consensus on values about what is sustainable and what not. Literature suggests knowledge governance as a promising form of governance. It focuses on the coordinative power of knowledge...

Governance strategies for sustainable innovations: Global mapping of resource efficient products and technologies

This paper addresses governance strategies to promote the implementation of resource efficient technologies and products in order to create sustainable innovation. The paper highlights results from a global mapping study of products and technologies with high resource efficiency potential. The results are based on a methodological framework,...

Sustainability meta-labeling: Key Actors and Factors for a potential Institutionalisation

To facilitate more sustainable consumption different actors have introduced various labeling schemes providing information about a products environmental, social or other attributes. Many argue however that the multiplicity of existing schemes has caused confusion for both producers and consumers. To reduce this confusion there have been calls...

Soft spaces and governance: The transformation of planning

Soft space governance arrangements are emerging all over Europe and at all geographical scales. Soft space approaches complement, but do not come in place of statutory planning. They are a reaction on and reflection of the changing context in which planning aims to be effective and as such indicate a reworking of the boundaries of the planning...

Social housing provision in the Italian region of Lombardy: Between market, state and community

This paper describes social housing developments in Lombardy, one of the most affluent regions in the Italy. Housing policy in Italy is mainly the responsibility of the Regions. We discuss the challenges of social housing provision and the interplay between market, state, community and third sector actors to provide affordable homes. However,...

Close neighbours not distant friends: Neighbourhood focused housing associations: developments in England and the Netherlands