Reconnecting philosophy and economics: An Aristotelian perspective on funding health care in The Netherlands

The 2006 health care reforms in the Netherlands were aimed at improving the affordability, accessibility, and quality of health care, as well as freedom in health care. However, the reality is that since the reforms (which include the privatisation of health-care insurance), costs have further increased and accessibility has decreased while...

Towards a Critical Urbanism: Evaluation and revision of the Open Society concept (Welfare State period) across Western Europe, the Netherlands and Spain

Currently, there is a growing gap between theory and practice in urban and architecture fields, that requires dialogue on multiple fronts, scales, and new perspectives. Bridging this gap and achieving a successful transition to a new era. In which theory and practice must work together cohesively creating new methods, models, new points of...

Could climbing up Maslow's pyramid help us solve the world's environmental problems?: A study of the impact of human development from material to non-material needs on the environment

Our planet is witnessing an unprecedented increase in temperature that is causing frequent damages such as extreme weather conditions, acidification of oceans and extinction of species that may soon become irreparable. Various studies have reported that greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from human activities in industries that produce 'material...

Sustainable Happiness: How we can use psychological well-being to get people to consume less

The goal of this project is to find a way to get people to consume less, by changing what they do to improve their subjective well-being. It was found that the main issue that needed tackling is the fact that, currently, people are addicted to consumption - they depend on consumption for their happiness. The best way to remedy this would be to...

Resilient at work

This Master thesis report presents how design methodology founded on principles of positive psychology can be used to design for the prevention of stress. People who work in stressful professions are at increased risk of health problems. One of the key ways to maintain a positive outlook on life is by increasing the resilience of an individual,...