Community Participation and Empowerment in Informal Settlement Upgrading: A Case Study in Monterrey, Mexico

As part of the larger urban context, informal settlements belong to the realm of formal urban governance while simultaneously possessing governance systems of their own. In the Mexican context, a shift in urban governance has facilitated elements of a networks approach, which places community participation as central to upgrading interventions,...

Public Spaces for Community Resilience: Thinking beyond the Dichotomies of Public and Private as well as Exterior and Interior

This paper focuses on public spaces for community resilience in their ‘response-related abilities’ and which can be improved. Comparative studies of communities, places, and/or disasters after the unforeseen impactful events are indicators to quantify the level of resilience. Within the broad scope of literature, in this line, 'community...

Social Innovation and the Energy Transition

The transition to low carbon energy systems cannot solely rely on technological innovation. It also requires social innovation. In the context of energy transition social innovation can be defined as innovation that is social in its means and which contributes to low carbon energy transition, civic empowerment and social goals pertaining to the...

All for one or ... one for all?

The housing estate of Nieuw Kattenburg is a Late-Modernist housing area consisting of many system-built slab buildings. This has been offering affordable housing and was built by the municipality of Amsterdam over fifty years ago. It is situated adjacent to the Amsterdam marine terrain which is now in the process of decommissioning and will be...