Leonie B. Janssen-Jansen

Political commitment in organising municipal responses to climate adaptation: the dedicated approach versus the mainstreaming approach

We develop conceptual understanding of political commitment in two approaches to organising municipal responses to climate adaptation. The dedicated approach, based on direct political commitment to climate adaptation, implies political agenda setting, resource allocation, and clear policy objectives which are expected to facilitate rapid implementation due to political pressure and new structures. The mainstreaming approach is based on indirect political commitment: climate adaptation ‘piggybacks’ on the established commitment of policy domains in which it is integrated, and institutional entrepreneurs and framing are considered necessary to establish policy synergies and to mobilise actors and resources. An implication is that implementation may be erratic, as entrepreneurs have to pioneer within existing structures. The cases of two Dutch cities – Amsterdam and Rotterdam – help to illustrate and refine our propositions on the nature and implications of political commitment.

Self-build in the UK and Netherlands: mainstreaming self-development to address housing shortages?

This paper examines approaches to self or custom-build in the Netherlands and the UK to offer comparative insights into self- and custom-built housing contexts and cultures, and specifically, the relationships with local and strategic planning arrangements. The paper reviews arguments for self-build as a means to address housing shortages and examines the evidence of completions in practice. It positions the discussion in light of arguments that self-build can become a mainstream source of housing provision. The paper critically considers the role of think tanks in advocating housing policy solutions. Adopting a social constructionist perspective, the paper examines the work of the National Self-Build Association which has devised and implemented an action plan to promote the growth of self-build housing in the UK. Almere, which is located east of Amsterdam, is one of the case studies explored to inform thinking around self-build in the devolved UK. The conclusions tease out some of the implications for democratic and technocratic arguments around self-development and the right to design and build one’s home.

The Role of Incentives in Implementing Successful Transit-Oriented Development Strategies

The pursuit of transit-oriented development strategies (TODS) is a worldwide phenomenon but knowledge of the process of implementation remains approximate. The ingredients for changing from a non-conducive to a conducive environment for TODS and how that change occurs remain unclear. In cases of successful TODS implementation, it is hypothesised that a deliberate shift occurred in the institutional context through the introduction of incentives to overcome implementation barriers. A conceptual model proposing the relationship between formal and informal barriers in a vicious cycle as well as the lifting of those barriers through a virtuous cycle of mutually reinforcing formal and informal incentives is applied. The processes of change accompanying the identification and the role of incentives are examined in three metropolitan regions: Perth, Portland and Vancouver. The combinations of incentivising measures used are revealed.

Delivering Planning Objectives through Regional-Based Land-Use Planning and Land Policy Instruments: An Assessment of Recent Experiences in the Dutch Provinces

This paper evaluates the extent to which the introduction of four new regional planning and land policy instruments in the Netherlands improves the delivery of regional planning objectives. On the basis of case-study research, we identify why and to what extent the Dutch regional authorities—the provinces—have adopted these new instruments and assess whether or not the instruments offer opportunities for improving the delivery of regional planning objectives. The study shows that regional policies and plans are often implemented without consideration of their consequences for national or local planning objectives. As a result, the instruments may not address current policy delivery needs, and may even compound local policy failures. We conclude that the use of such instruments should be accompanied by a more thorough discussion of regional planning tasks and objectives, and a debate on the role of regional authorities within the multilevel governance setting.

The Amsterdam Metropolitan Area Challenge: Opportunities for Inclusive Coproduction in City-Region Governance

The city-regional level has gained importance in various planning systems as a result of the continuous need to solve strategic planning issues that transcend political and jurisdictional boundaries. Governance through voluntary policy networks gained importance as a way to make policy objective delivery at this city-regional level more effective and efficient. However, the multilevel organized accountability of policy networks with different logics and rationalities challenges policy implementation processes. This paper develops a framework to analyze and understand how the structure of voluntary city-regional policy networks affects the effectiveness, efficiency, and democratic legitimacy of these networks and the policies they create. Using the case of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area as an example, we show that city-region governance needs to involve not only government interests but also interests of market players and NGOs to become effective, efficient, and legitimate and that national policy interference is to a large extent incompatible with it.

From Amsterdam to Amsterdam Metropolitan Area: A Paradigm Shift

The Amsterdam Metropolitan Area is searching for new ways to position itself on the global economic stage as a full-fledged and sustainable European metropolis. While repositioning, the City of Amsterdam and its surrounding municipalities have made a shift to a more urban–regional narrative to serve the region and tackle its planning challenges. This paper will discuss the current situation of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area and analyse the scale and scope of the metropolitan thinking, with emphasis on the importance of international competitiveness and sustainability policies – and the balance between them – in this process of metropolitan capacity-building and consciousness-building.

Stimuli for municipal responses to climate adaptation: insights from Philadelphia – an early adapter

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify stimuli for climate adaptation in cities and more specifically to explore whether different stimuli inspire different governance approaches to climate adaptation – e.g. dedicated (adaptation as a new policy field) or mainstreaming (integrating in existing policy fields). Design/methodology/approach – For this explorative case study research, an early adapter was selected: Philadelphia (USA). By reconstructing the organization of two climate adaptation programs, the authors have identified stimuli and whether these influence the city’s governance approach. The reconstruction is based on data triangulation that consists of semi-structured interviews with actors involved in these programs, policy documents and newspaper articles. Findings – The research illustrates the importance of stimuli such as strategically framing climate adaptation within wider urban agendas, political leadership and institutional entrepreneurs. Moreover, the research reveals that it ...

Bouwen aan vertrouwen: woningbouwprogrammering aan de vooravond van de omgevingswet : eindrapport PROSPER-onderzoek

nature to improve the q uality of lif e’ . Binnen Wageningen U niversity & Research bundelen Wageningen U niversity en gespecialiseerde onderzoeksinstituten van Stichting Wageningen Research hun krachten om bij te dragen aan de oplossing van belangrijke vragen in het domein van gezonde voeding en leef omgeving. M et ongeveer 30 vestigingen, 5 .000 medewerkers en 10.000 studenten behoort Wageningen U niversity & Research wereldwijd tot de aansprekende kennisinstellingen binnen haar domein. D e integrale benadering van de vraagstukken en de samenwerking tussen verschillende disciplines vormen het hart van de unieke Wageningen aanpak.

How healthy and sustainable is the Dutch housing mix? Measuring and comparing the theoretical housing market balance of Dutch regional housing markets

Housing and its distribution over groups of households dominates debates on urban socio-spatial justice. Amsterdam even received the label ‘Just City’ as the large stock of social housing in the core of the city is said to increase societal equity. Within the Netherlands, however, the Greater Amsterdam housing market is perceived to be the most dysfunctional. As the discussion is fed by highly political and ideological perspectives, it is difficult to assess at face value how balanced the housing mix of a housing market is and to what extent it meets the community’s needs. Consequently, it is difficult to inform politicians about strategies that contribute to a healthy and sustainable housing mix and address the lack of affordable housing which is high on urban policy agendas worldwide. In an attempt to go beyond ideological and political discussions, the aim of this interdisciplinary paper is to develop a metric to measure and compare the theoretical balance of housing markets across regions and across groups of households based on income. The metric will be applied to the case of the Netherlands. The findings of the theoretical model show that large-scale provisions for low-income households may not always result in an improved housing market balance.