Want to be part of the solution? Or are you already working towards the answers? We want to hear. Tell us about the individuals and organizations, ideas and innovations you think are making a difference around the world

CALL FOR PAPERS RETHINKING URBAN INCLUSION: SPACES, MOBILISATIONS, INTERVENTIONS to be held in Coimbra, Portugal, 28-30 June 2012 With almost half the world's population living in cities, questioning the urban dimension of social inclusion and exclusion is imperative. Urban inclusion is increasingly influenced - and often constrained - by intertwined processes of economic globalization, state re-articulation, polarization and diversification of (local) populations and the political practices they add to the city. Educational, health and environmental inequalities, segregation, unemployment, lack of political participation, discrimination and the inability to deal with different forms of participation are all phenomena of exclusion with a local dimension but a multi-scalar nature. At the same time, acting towards social inclusion is developed around ideas, knowledge(s), experiences, resources and capacities which are (dis)located across an array of arenas and distributed among different actors. While traditional concepts and practices of urban inclusion centered on institutions and top-down decision-making seem inadequate to tackle this complexity, new ones are often in their infancy and may be in tension with more established policies. Contesting the centrality of the state and market pervasiveness, a new variety of counter-hegemonic positions and projects, and alternative visions of urban democracy and justice that inform bottom-up and participatory approaches to urban inclusion, have become popular in the Global South, while their transposition to cities in the Global North have met resistance or hardly gone beyond theorization.  The Conference aims to understand and ultimately rethink social inclusion at the urban scale, as the product of broader dynamics and the interaction of different actors and languages. How can we trace, define, and challenge the new subtle forms of social and territorial exclusion, trying to reinvent urban in

Note: the call for papers is close.   The symposium will especially welcome abstracts and papers on the following themes: Spatial Analysis and Architectural Theory Urban Space and Social, Economic and Cultural Phenomena Building Morphology and Usage Historical Evolution of the Built Form Spatial Cognition Modelling and Methodological Development Software Development Others Please note that it will be necessary to submit an abstract to get a paper accepted even though abstracts in themselves will not be refereed.

International Annual Conference and General Assembly: Beyond growth - Steps towards a 2000 Watt society 23 - 26 May 2012 in St. Gallen / Switzerland On invitation of the Executive Committee member Fredy Brunner and the City of St. Gallen, next year's International Annual Conference and General Assembly will be held in St. Gallen from 23 - 26 May 2012. Please save the date! We are looking forward to welcoming you next year in St. Gallen!

Building the Renewable City - Architecture, Property and Infrastructure - University of Liechtenstein, 3 May 2012 The architecture of our cities and regions faces a great transformation, worldwide. In many cities and communities this change is already manifest, in the search for buildings and property investments fit for future generations. New projects thrive without coal or nuclear power, conserve water and resources, respond to local history, culture and social aspirations. Such qualities ensure the highest expectations for efficiency, profitability and investment security. Tomorrow's property and wider development investments literally come alive: they are resource minimising and bio-climatic, generate renewable energy locally and secure both income and value. Biodiversity and local food security are a priority in today's search for sustainable settlement design and development. The aesthetics of our architectural and urban projects follows these principles - articulation the true meaning of a New Modern. The conference is dedicated to successful international initiatives in sustainable urban and regional design, from Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland to the United States. About the Liechtenstein Congress 2012 Awaken by environmental, energy, financial, and political challenges the global economy is transforming fast, from short-term thinking and a systemic reliance on non-renewable resources, to building an innovative, just, sustainable and prosperous future, manifested in sustainable assets, healthy communities and social equity. Since 2008 The Liechtenstein Congress provides an international platform for practical research and informed practice in Sustainable Development and Responsible Investing, guided by effective policy and enlightened by a deep sense of responsibility. This year we will present and discuss a) the role of foundations in the larger frame of financial institutions and their responsible investment paths, b

European Conference on Human Centred Design for Intelligent Transport Systems - Valencia, Spain, 14-15 June 2012Due to the non-existence of a specific conference focused on safety and usability of vehicle information and communication technologies, the HUMANIST NoE decided in 2008 to set up a European conference on Human Centred Design for Intelligent Transport Systems. The aim is to gather the community of Human Factors researchers, to offer an overview of the current developments and trends and to create an area for discussions and debates on these topics.  This "Third European Conference on Human Centered Design for Intelligent Transport Systems"will be held on 14 and 15 June 2012 in Valencia, Spain, and will address the following topics: Effects of ITS on driver behaviour and interaction with the systems;Tools and methodologies for safety and usability assessement;Modelling of drivers' behaviour for ITS design;Diversity and specificity of road user groups;Drivers' needs and acceptance of assistance functions;Green ITS to meet new driver needs;Field Operational Tests and Naturalistic Driving Studies;ITS and traffic management;Human-Centered System Integration and Product Maturity;Generic User Interfaces for Assistance Systems. 

SISTEMA DE INFORMACIÓN URBANA Sectores Residenciales en España 2011   There are no translations available. Estudio sobre la Situación Actual de Ámbitos o Sectores con especial potencialidad edificatoria incluidos en el Sistema de Información Urbana (SIU)Esta publicación es un estudio que presta especial interés a los principales ámbitos o sectores de uso residencial que figuran en la base de datos del Sistema de Información Urbana (SIU) de la Dirección General de Suelo y Políticas Urbanas del Ministerio de Fomento, con el objetivo, por un lado, de poner de manifiesto el potencial de viviendas que se deriva del planeamiento vigente y, por otro, de ofrecer los datos básicos de dichos ámbitos y sectores así como los relativos a su proceso de urbanización y edificación. Para acotar el ámbito del estudio, se han seleccionado aquellas áreas de desarrollo de los municipios incluidos actualmente en el SIU con un número previsto de viviendas igual o superior a las 1.000 unidades y cuyo grado de edificación es inferior al 70 por ciento de acuerdo con la base de datos del SIU. De cada uno de los municipios que figuran en este estudio, se ofrece una ficha resumen que muestra información tanto del propio municipio, como de todas las áreas de desarrollo que cumplen las dos condiciones anteriormente mencionadas, cada ficha municipal consta por tanto de tres bloques: Clases urbanísticas de suelo, Áreas de suelo de desarrollo y Grandes desarrollos residenciales pendientes de edificar. De los desarrollos residenciales más significativos recogidos en esta ficha resumen, se ofrecen imágenes y mapas que nos permiten aproximarnos a la realidad del ámbito y conocer, en su caso, el proceso de desarrollo que ha tenido. Además, en aquellos sectores que han tenido un desarrollo urbanístico en los últimos años y que pertenecen a municipios con más de 100.000 habitantes, se completa la información con una nueva ficha en la que se ofrece de manera adicional un

Study on the current situation in Spain of areas or sectors with particular edifying potential included in the Urban Information System (UIS)The Spanish Ministry of Public Works establishes, among others, the Directorate-General of Land and Urban Policies, which recently published a research on the current situation of areas or sectors with particular edifying potential included in the Urban Information System (UIS). The publication pays special attention to the main areas or residential sectors listed in the Spanish UIS database. Firstly, in order to highlight the potential of homes that are derived from the current planning. And second, to provide basic data fields and sectors such as those related to development and construction process. Selection criteria for the areas considered within the researchTo narrow the scope of the study, development areas were selected within the Spanish municipalities which are currently in the UIS with an expected number of homes less than 1000 units and whose degree of building is less than 70% according to the UIS database. From each of the municipalities included in this study a summary is provided with information from both the municipality itself, as well as the areas of development that are listed in the 2 conditions mentioned earlier. The 3 areas which are focussed on throughout the research are: Urban soil; Land development areas;Major residential developments pending edification. Thorough information on Spanish urban development areasOf the most significant residential developments included in this publication, images and maps are shown that allow the reader to approach the reality of the field and really learn about the process of development that that area underwent. Moreover, in those sectors that have undergone urban development in recent years and belong to municipalities with more than 100,000 inhabitants, complete information is given. This provides an additional approach to its evolution using the base data from u

RSA Annual International Conference 2011 17th - 20th April 2011, Newcastle University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK Academic Papers Author(s) Title of Paper/Presentation Cristina Aragón, Mari Jose Aranguren, Maria Angeles Diez, Cristina Iturrioz and James R. Wilson Creating cooperation for clusters? Lessons from the implementation of a participatory policy evaluation process Jānis Balodis Polieconomics of African Civil Wars: Period 1950. - 2010 - Military Geographical Distribution Professor Andrew Beer Subversive Leadership: Hegemony, Contestation and the Future of Regions Professor Andrew Beer and Dr Selina Tually The Drivers of Regional Housing Markets in Australia: Evidence and Implications for Future Growth Paul Benneworth and Roel Rutten Territorial Innovation Models beyond the Learning Regions Bianchi P. and Labory S. Industrial Policy after the Crisis: the Case of the Emilia-Romagna Region in Italy Michail Biniakos The changing politics of Local and Regional Development and Governance in Romania Ph.D. Luis Felipe Martí Borbolla Business and social responsibility Petter Boye (Econ. Dr.) The changing role of OECD Territorial Reviews in policy conception and regional development David L. Brown, Benjamin C. Bolender, Laszlo J. Kulcsar, Nina Glasgow and Scott Sanders Inter-County Variability of Net Migration at Older Ages as a Path Dependent Process Dr Ignazio Cabras Community Cohesion in Rural UK: The Case of Rural Co-operatives and their Potential for Local Communities H. Caraveli and M. Tsionas Regional Inequalities in Greece: Determining factors, trends and perspectives Tony Champion and Alan Townsend British City Regions' Economies into Recession Anastassios Chardas Exploring the differential enforcement of the EU's Cohesion Policy added value: Administrative and institutional adjustments in Greece and Ireland. Nick Clifton, Phil Cooke and Høgni Kalsø Hansen Creative Knowledge Workers across 'Varieties of Capitalism': evidence from Sweden and the UK Joa

9º Seminário Internacional9th InternationalSeminarNUTAU 2012BRICS e a Habitação Coletiva SustentávelBRICS and Sustainable Collective Housing

Linguistics professor George Lakoff at the Free Speech Movement Café. (BAP photos) Framing the issues: UC Berkeley professor George Lakoff tells how conservatives use language to dominate politics By Bonnie Azab Powell, NewsCenter | 27 October 2003 BERKELEY - With Republicans controlling the Senate, the House, and the White House and enjoying a large margin of victory for California Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger, it's clear that the Democratic Party is in crisis. George Lakoff, a UC Berkeley professor of linguistics and cognitive science, thinks he knows why. Conservatives have spent decades defining their ideas, carefully choosing the language with which to present them, and building an infrastructure to communicate them, says Lakoff. The work has paid off: by dictating the terms of national debate, conservatives have put progressives firmly on the defensive. George Lakoff dissects "war on terror" and other conservative catchphrases Read the August 26, 2004, follow-up interview In 2000 Lakoff and seven other faculty members from Berkeley and UC Davis joined together to found the Rockridge Institute, one of the few progressive think tanks in existence in the U.S. The institute offers its expertise and research on a nonpartisan basis to help progressives understand how best to get their messages across. The Richard & Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Professor in the College of Letters & Science, Lakoff is the author of "Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think," first published in 1997 and reissued in 2002, as well as several other books on how language affects our lives. He is taking a sabbatical this year to write three books - none about politics - and to work on several Rockridge Institute research projects. In a long conversation over coffee at the Free Speech Movement Café, he told the NewsCenter's Bonnie Azab Powell why the Democrats "just don't get it," why Schwarzenegger won the recall election, and why conservatives will continue t

Frame Analysis: Theoretical PreliminariesThomas KönigFrame analysis is neither a full-fledged theoretical paradigm, nor a coherent methodological approach. Rather, frame analyses are a number of related, even though sometimes partially incompatible methods for the analysis of discourses (Scheufele 1999: 118). What unifies these analyses is a (fairly loose) theoretical connection to Goffman's (1974) work on framing. These pages will overview: the theoretical development of frame analyses;the measurement of frames;important conceptsin frame analysis;software suitable to aid frame analysis;a bibliography of frame analysis.Theoretical DevelopmentInitially frame analysis was initially predicted to become a niche method at best. One Contemporary Sociology reviewer complained that Frame Analysis is cumbersome to read (Davis 1975: 603), the other one wondered, if an adequate systematization of frame analysis would be feasible (Gamson 1975: 605). 1Probably the single most important factor for the success of Goffman's frame analysis despite this initial skeptical assessment is its unorthodox appropriation by scholars from very different traditions. Frame analysis is no longer Goffman's frame analysis, but is frequently only loosely connected to the original formulation. Notwithstanding the recurrent symbolic nods to Goffman, today's "frame analysis" spans a number of disparate approaches (D'Angelo 2002; Fisher 1997; Hallahan 1999; Maher 2001: 81f; Scheufele 1999: 103, 118). Three subject areas stand out in the development of frame analyses since Goffman: Management and organizational studies, social movement studies, and media studies. Each subject area has, of course, focused on different areas of framing theory and has approached the subject with different methods. Following the the work of 2002 Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman and his associate Amos Tversky (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979), management and organizational studies have focused on the behavioral effects of different

"Soft Means" to Advance Public Policy The so-called "soft means" to advance public policy seek the support of the humanities and social sciences to enhance the formulation and implementation of public policies. A classical example, on political philosophy, is The Republic of Plato. More recent examples are the writings on nonviolence by Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Engagement in the political process, and adherence to the principle of nonviolence, are tactics of choice for "global citizen" organizations. Plato by Silanion Source: Wikipedia KEY LINKS: Framing of Issues How the media frames political issues, Scott London, 1993 Framing the issues: George Lakoff tells how conservatives use language to dominate politics, Bonnie Azab Powell, UC Berkeley News, 27 October 2003. Framing Public Issues, Frameworks Institute, 2004. Framing the issues, News Hounds, 23 July 2004. Simple Framing: An introduction to framing and its uses in politics, George Lakoff, Rockridge Institute, February 2006. Framing effect' influences decisions: Emotions play a role in decision-making when information is too complex, Charles Choi, LiveScience, August 2006. Framing of climate issues, IPCC, 2007. Framing issues for public deliberation, Kettering Foundation, 25 June 2009. Naming and framing difficult issues to make sound decisions, NCDD/Kettering Foundation, 19 August 2009. The art of framing, Gisela Dütting and David Sogge, The Broker Online, 1 July 2010. Framing of issues, Wikipedia, retrieved 27 July 2011. Frame Analysis, Thomas Konig, retrieved 27 July 2011. What is issue framing?, WiseGeek, web site as of 31 July 2011.

Reducing complexity: transformation of capital citiesConvenorsIlka Thiessen (Vancouver Island University)Goran Janev (Institute for Sociological Political and Juridical Research,Skopje) Short AbstractThis panel will explore the responses to the post-1989 transformation ofEuropean capitals, as well as recent responses to the financial crisis, bylooking at how the symbolic power of cities experience the transformationof public spaces. Long AbstractJust twenty years ago half of Europe hastily jumped from socialism towardscapitalism. Reinforcing nationalism was one of the ways to overcome thetransitional anxiety. The European version of cosmopolitan supra-nationalidentity had and still has to compete with particular nationalistrepresentations in the 'new' countries of a united Europe.As most revolutions happen in capital cities, we seek for ethnographicaccounts, that reveal the discrepancy between the imposition of thegovernmental symbolic order in the public space of capital cities, andcreation of everyday lived spaces. Considering the symbolic power thatcapitals pose, the transformations of the public space in these cities canreveal the aspirations of the political elites in these countries. Thispanel will explore the responses to the post-1989 transformation ofEuropean capitals, as well as recent responses to the financial crisis,and constant threat of recession and economic downfall. We are interestedboth in the nation-state abuse of the idea of capital cities, and theproduction of appropriate political subjects. Following this, we will lookat the resistance produced by ordinary citizens, artists, and other actorswho exercise their right to create a public space that is an inclusiveopen democratic space. http://www.nomadit.co.uk/easa/easa2012/panels.php5?PanelID=1360