Offshore Urbanism: Using design to understand, represent and employ human-sea relations in the spatial reorganisation of the Barents Sea

This thesis builds on the proposition that the ocean is both an urban and social space. Therefore, marine planning needs to consider socio-cultural risks and opportunities to be deemed sustainable. This reconceptualisation is especially relevant for the Barents Sea, where retreating sea ice leaves the ocean more accessible to marine traffic and...

Towards a More Socio-culturally Sustainable Future of Chengdu City: The pathway exploration of urban regeneration in the inner city of Chengdu, China, focused on the local public lifestyle

Chengdu, is a megacity in the west of China with a long history and a population of almost 20 million. It is one of the largest cities in China where the socio-cultural identity stands out with a unique local lifestyle. Also, it is a city facing overall urban regeneration since 2020, when the establishment of an urban regeneration system at the...

Post-Syrian War Residential Heritage Transformations in the Old City of Aleppo: Socio-Cultural Sustainability Aspects

The rehabilitation and sustainable transformation of residential heritage of the Old City of Aleppo (Syria) is one of the most pressing issues to regain the livability of this city. This research paper aims to gain insight into the residents’ conditions and needs by studying/mapping/analyzing the status of the residential heritage and the...

Crossing Cultural Chasms: Towards a culture-conscious approach to design

This thesis concerns specifically the discipline of product design, and the main question is how can designers be supported in understanding the culture of their intended users. The reason for this study is that designers are experiencing difficulties and uncertainties with regard to their intended users, as these users live in cultures with...

Socio-cultural dimensions to sharpen designer's cultural eyeglasses

This paper answers the question, how the dimensions that have been developed by anthropologists to typify cultures, can support designers in user-centred design processes. An analysis and evaluation of the use of cultural dimensions in design projects was performed. Although many of the dimensions found in the literature appear relevant for...

Socio-Cultural Factors Influencing the Success of Technology-Driven Acquisitions: An exploratory study of 10 selected Philips acquisitions

Various authors propose that half of the national and cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) fail to achieve their prior-set targets. One of the most cited cause of failures is ‘culture clashes’. The ‘socio-cultural issues’, as they are in mostly cited, are believed to influence the integration of acquisitions and the overall success of...

The Role of Human Resource Management in Post-acquisition Integration

Building on the experience built up from the management of more than 30 integration project, the objective of this research as been to improve the post-acquisition HR integration approach of Philips New Venture Integration, based on a gap analysis between the current model approach actual HR integration processes employed during the integration...

Cultures of sustainability

In our research, we have been expanding our conceptual and methodological frames of reference as designers, in order to explore the complexity of factors involved in environmental sustainability and the consequent challenges posed for design research. In this paper, we discuss some of these issues in user-centered and sustainable design, drawing...

Cultures of sustainability: 'Ways of doing' cooking

In our research, we have been expanding our conceptual and methodological frames of reference as designers, in order to explore the complexity of factors involved in environmental sustainability and the consequent challenges posed for design research. In this paper, we discuss some of these issues in user-centered and sustainable design, drawing...