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Innovative architecture and networks for learner-centred, local education and life-long-learning are receiving growing attention. Yet, practitioners still require practical guidance, given the challenge of involving and interacting with new and diverse stake-holder groups, such as architects and politicians, or the community at large. With the goal of advancing scientific and practical frameworks, this thesis approaches how stakeholders in ‘education-centred urban development’ (ECUD) can be helped to accomplish mutual understanding and more effective communication and interaction during planning.
Assuming the organizational theory of ‘networked governance’ (NG), a literature re-view is conducted across ‘institutional learning space development’ (ILSD) and the ‘learning city / region’ discourse (LCR), in order to discuss stakeholder involvement in planning. Six key themes are summarized and tested against a case study of ‘Hume Global Learning Village’ (HGLV), Australia, using a document analysis and expert online interviews.
The review finds the following themes: First, the concepts of ILSD and ECUD can be very abstract to comprehend, and stakeholders’ varied understandings of ‘learning’ demands an open, continuous dialogue. Next, individual leadership needs to initiate a vision, and multiply buy-in and followers. Securing sustainable funding sources is a precondition to foster participation and commitment. Long-standing organizational ‘silo-thinking’ has to be opened up towards cultures of sharing, collaboration, and innovation. Facilitation capacities are crucial to provide an inclusive planning process where con-sent and commitment is fostered. Lastly, change and positive learning effects may take a long time to show – this expectation has to be internalized by all stakeholders.
Despite few optimal interview sources, the case study confirms the themes, and illustrates that excess leadership can ensure the other conditions. This suggests that the six themes can serve as a framework for practitioners to conduct successful stake-holder involvement in planning. However, they are not unique among good-case literature. Moreover, the review shows a literature gap in how a suitable degree of stakeholder involvement can be selected. It is recommended to consolidate the various, alterna-tive planning processes and models, and further triangulate local experiences, in order to close this gap and derive more comprehensive and universal tools for practitioners.
Evaluating a forthcoming international bibliographic research database in form of a Zotero group
(2014)
Purpose – In order to connect the various international research hubs on physical learning spaces, a large-scale research database has been developed, using a Zotero group. Hitherto, its interface and collection index has never been examined for usability. This pilot study attempts to discover what retrieval strategy combinations users apply in the Zotero web interface, and how satisfied they are with the usability and the retrieval outcomes. The results shall not just generate ideas for the improvement of the studied database, but also provide inspiration for similar Zotero projects. Design/methodology/approach – This pilot study is designed as a qualitative field study. A sample of the project is actual target group was contacted around Copenhagen, Denmark. During a home- or office-visit, a natural search task was defined and executed by the participant on a laptop provided by the instructor. Using TechSmiths Morae usability software, screen, webcam, and voice data was recorded and analyzed; after the recording, a usability survey was filled out. Findings – Despite only two samples, the participants use and judge the three search methods of Zotero differently. Most participants favor the free text search method (1), although the retrieval results are unsatisfactory. In a large-scale, multi-language collection, like the assessed database, browsing in hierarchical categories (2), or faceting results using a tag cloud (3) may be more effective and efficient, but only a minority of participants understands and applies these methods. Furthermore, it appears that the interface lacks intuitive navigation, especially for the non-scientific community. Novice Zotero users not familiar with the concepts of bibliographic databases may fail to differentiate between the Zotero website (the service provider) and the Zotero group (the database, the actual subject of the study). Originality/value – This is the first published usability study of a large-scale Zotero group. It introduces usability issues, regarding search functions and web interface. Besides drawing inspiration from a similar Zotero bibliography, which uses RSS feeds and API interfaces, a few practical ways to enhance user search experience are suggested. The pilot study concludes with suggestions for further research, designed for more reliable participant scales.
The publication culture on Urban Agriculture (UA) is nearly exclusively inhabited by idealist and practitioner proponents. Foremost the economics (oftentimes influenced by Marxism) dare to critique the sustainability of the movement. In short, the people that start a UA project eventually require help from their city through recognition and policy support. The full breadth of intentions of these people are principally unknown, and this hinders policy design, in turn. Investigating these rationales (using Skot-Hansens Five Es (2005)) is the scope of this paper. It identifies a number of necessary policy changes, but ultimately pinpoints that it requires the involvement of activists, NGOs, and individual UA champions to raise awareness and to participate in policy design and implementation. It is found that, in one or the other way, most UA proponents motives can be traced back to a facet of community empowerment. Amongst the variety of rationales, especially the non-capitalist culture of UA is said to further its sustainability (not just in economic terms), because it brings forth a culture that embodies the said empowerment and shapes a democratic, inclusive sharing community. Hence, UA is identified as a strategy for urban cultural regeneration.