{"title":"Environmental considerations in the Swedish building and construction industry: the role of costs, institutional setting, and information.","authors":"Anders Isaksson, Henrik Linderoth","doi":"10.1007/s10901-017-9588-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-017-9588-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Despite increasing evidence that being an environment-friendly company not only benefits the environment but also makes long-term economic sense, the transition to a more sustainable society is extremely slow. This is true of the building and construction industry as well. At a strategic level, environmental issues have received more attention with the establishment of roles such as environmental managers and implementation of advanced environmental management systems. However, adoption has been slow in the absence of a holistic approach to environmental challenges, partly reinforced by a perception that giving more than the legally required level of environmental consideration will only add to costs without corresponding financial benefits. This raises the following question that the study aims to answer: What is the most important factor influencing decision makers' in adopting environmental considerations? To this end, it analysed questionnaire data collected from decision makers in the Swedish construction industry along with an in-depth case study of a specific building and construction company. The results show that decision makers perceive informational and institutional constraints on the adoption of environmental considerations. Lack of information is perceived as the biggest obstacle to environmental considerations. If information and knowledge about clients' and end users' financial benefits from adopting environmental considerations need to be exploited, they have to be supported by contractual forms that discard a short-term focus on the investment costs of a building in favour of a focus on long-term operational and maintenance costs and benefits.</p>","PeriodicalId":73781,"journal":{"name":"Journal of housing and the built environment : HBE","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s10901-017-9588-8","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"36748508","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Justin B Hollander, Maxwell D Hartt, Andrew Wiley, Shannon Vavra
{"title":"Vacancy in shrinking downtowns: a comparative study of Québec, Ontario, and New England.","authors":"Justin B Hollander, Maxwell D Hartt, Andrew Wiley, Shannon Vavra","doi":"10.1007/s10901-017-9587-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-017-9587-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In North America and around the globe, there has been emerging recognition of the size and scope of urban shrinkage, yet little is understood about how decline impacts commercial centers and downtowns. In order to facilitate geographically targeted policymaking, this paper examines the physical patterns of downtown decline in three distinct regions. We seek to test the hypothesis that differences in the process of urban decline in downtown districts vary due to national or historic context. Using statistical analysis and direct observations, we found that while the scale of population decline was greatest in New England, downtowns in both Ontario and Québec have seen substantial decline and have appeared to have better weathered the change with respect to physical signs of decline.</p>","PeriodicalId":73781,"journal":{"name":"Journal of housing and the built environment : HBE","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s10901-017-9587-9","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"36748507","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The unraveling of Amsterdam's unitary rental system.","authors":"Robbin Jan Van Duijne, Richard Ronald","doi":"10.1007/s10901-018-9601-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-018-9601-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The Netherlands has traditionally been considered an iconic 'unitary' rental housing market in which social and private sectors directly compete. More recently however, this unitary market has been undermined by changes in the status of housing associations, the privatization of social housing stock and the promotion of home ownership. It has subsequently been suggested that the Netherlands is drifting toward a 'dualist' system in which social and private sectors are critically unequal. This paper takes on this claim, providing, on the one hand, palpable evidence of the waning influence of the unitary housing system in the Netherlands and, on the other, a deeper examination of processes of dualisation as well as the outcomes. We focus on Amsterdam, where housing privatization has been most intense. We specifically draw on a geospatial analysis of changing tenure distributions at the neighbourhood level as well as a household analysis of the shifting profile of tenants and home owners to show how the unitary rental market, which helped establish Amsterdam as an iconic 'just city', has been unraveling. We demonstrate the relevance of the unitary/dualist model to understanding contemporary urban processes, especially those featuring social and economic polarization.</p>","PeriodicalId":73781,"journal":{"name":"Journal of housing and the built environment : HBE","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s10901-018-9601-x","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"36748509","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Risks and interrelationships of subdistrict house prices: the case of Amsterdam.","authors":"Alfred Larm Teye, Jan de Haan, Marja G Elsinga","doi":"10.1007/s10901-017-9568-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-017-9568-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This paper uses individual house transaction data from 1995 to 2014 in Amsterdam to explore the risks and interrelationships of the subdistrict house prices. Simple indicators suggest that house prices grow faster and are more risky in the central business district and its immediate surrounding areas than in the peripherals. Furthermore, we observe an over time decreasing intervariations between the subdistrict house price growth rates, whereas we find a lead-lag and house price causal flow from the more central to the peripheral subdistricts.</p>","PeriodicalId":73781,"journal":{"name":"Journal of housing and the built environment : HBE","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s10901-017-9568-z","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"36106530","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The end of mass homeownership? Changes in labour markets and housing tenure opportunities across Europe.","authors":"Rowan Arundel, John Doling","doi":"10.1007/s10901-017-9551-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-017-9551-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>With continued economic growth and expanding mortgage markets, until recently the pattern across advanced economies was of growing homeownership sectors. The Great Financial Crisis (GFC) has however, undercut this growth resulting in the contraction of homeownership access in many countries and the revival of private renting. This paper argues that these tenure changes are not solely a consequence of the GFC, and therefore, reversible once long-term growth returns. Rather, they are the consequences of more fundamental changes especially in labour markets. The very financialisation that fuelled the growth of homeownership has also led to a hollowing out of well-paid, secure jobs-exactly those that fit best with the taking of housing loans. We examine longer-term declines in labour market security across Europe from before the GFC, identifying an underlying correlation between deteriorated labour market conditions and homeownership access for young adults. While variations exist across European countries, there is evidence of common trends. We argue that the GFC both accelerated pre-existing labour insecurity dynamics and brought an end to offsetting such dynamics through the expansion of credit access with the likelihood of a return to an era of widespread homeownership growth starkly decreased.</p>","PeriodicalId":73781,"journal":{"name":"Journal of housing and the built environment : HBE","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s10901-017-9551-8","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"35727046","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The distribution of housing wealth in 16 European countries: accounting for institutional differences.","authors":"Barend Wind, Philipp Lersch, Caroline Dewilde","doi":"10.1007/s10901-016-9540-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-016-9540-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Housing wealth is the largest source of household wealth, but we know little about the distribution of housing wealth and how institutions have shaped this distribution. Subsidies for homeownership, privatisation of social housing and mortgage finance liberalisation are likely to have influenced the distribution of housing wealth in recent decades. To examine their impact, we describe housing wealth inequalities across occupational classes for two birth cohorts aged fifty and older. The analysis is conducted across 16 European countries with divergent welfare states and housing systems using the fourth wave of the survey of health, ageing and retirement in Europe (SHARE; 2011/2012). Our results indicate that the expansion of homeownership in a market-based housing system is associated with a more unequal distribution of housing wealth across occupational classes, as an increasing number of 'marginal' owners are drawn into precarious homeownership. Such a pattern is not found in housing wealth accumulation regimes with a less market-based provision of housing. When the state or the family drive homeownership expansion, a de-coupling of labour market income and housing consumption results in a more equal distribution of housing wealth.</p>","PeriodicalId":73781,"journal":{"name":"Journal of housing and the built environment : HBE","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s10901-016-9540-3","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"35727050","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jacob Veenstra, Hendrik M Koolma, Maarten A Allers
{"title":"Scale, mergers and efficiency: the case of Dutch housing corporations.","authors":"Jacob Veenstra, Hendrik M Koolma, Maarten A Allers","doi":"10.1007/s10901-016-9515-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-016-9515-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The efficiency of social housing providers is a contentious issue. In the Netherlands, there is a widespread belief that housing corporations have substantial potential for efficiency improvements. A related question is whether scale influences efficiency, since recent decades have shown a trend of mergers among corporations. This paper offers a framework to assess the effects of scale and mergers on the efficiency of Dutch housing corporations by using both a data envelopment analysis and a stochastic frontier analysis, using panel data for 2001-2012. The results indicate that most housing corporations operate under diseconomies of scale, implying that merging would be undesirable in most cases. However, merging may have beneficial effects on pure technical efficiency as it forces organizations to reconsider existing practices. A data envelopment analysis indeed confirms this hypothesis, but these results cannot be replicated by a stochastic frontier analysis, meaning that the evidence for this effect is not robust.</p>","PeriodicalId":73781,"journal":{"name":"Journal of housing and the built environment : HBE","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s10901-016-9515-4","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"35727963","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Julia Woodhall-Melnik, Sarah Hamilton-Wright, Nihaya Daoud, Flora I Matheson, James R Dunn, Patricia O'Campo
{"title":"Establishing stability: exploring the meaning of 'home' for women who have experienced intimate partner violence.","authors":"Julia Woodhall-Melnik, Sarah Hamilton-Wright, Nihaya Daoud, Flora I Matheson, James R Dunn, Patricia O'Campo","doi":"10.1007/s10901-016-9511-8","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10901-016-9511-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>There is evidence that involuntary housing instability may undermine health and well-being. For women who have experienced intimate partner violence (IPV), achieving stability is likely as important for other groups, but can be challenging. Through our analysis of 41 interviews with women who have experienced low income and IPV, we argue that definitions of housing stability are multifaceted and for many centred on a shared understanding of the importance of creating an environment of \"home\". We found that obtaining housing that satisfied material needs was important to women. However, in asking women to define what housing stability meant to them, we found that other factors related to ontological security and the home, such as safety, community, and comfort, contributed to women's experiences of stability. Through our discussion of the importance these women placed on establishing stable homes, we argue that future research on women's experiences with housing stability and IPV should include definitions of stability that capture both material security and women's experiences with building emotionally stable homes.</p>","PeriodicalId":73781,"journal":{"name":"Journal of housing and the built environment : HBE","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5744605/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"35727601","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Tenure mix: apart or together? Home-making practices and belonging in a Dutch street.","authors":"Peer Smets, Karin Sneep","doi":"10.1007/s10901-015-9493-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-015-9493-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This paper discusses home-making practices and senses of belonging in a street in a disadvantaged neighbourhood in the south of the Netherlands. The local tenure mix of tenants and owner-occupiers offers insight into the role class and ethnicity play in social mixing. Therefore, attention is paid to narratives and the informal organisation of different living spaces and territory-making practices. Here, the domestic space could be experienced as a vehicle of intimacy and sociability, or conversely as encouraging alienation. Such practices, in combination with length of stay result in mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion. The insights derived from this study will contribute to the theoretical discussion on home-making practices and belonging.</p>","PeriodicalId":73781,"journal":{"name":"Journal of housing and the built environment : HBE","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s10901-015-9493-y","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"35754954","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sanne Boschman, Reinout Kleinhans, Maarten van Ham
{"title":"Ethnic differences in realising desires to leave urban neighbourhoods.","authors":"Sanne Boschman, Reinout Kleinhans, Maarten van Ham","doi":"10.1007/s10901-016-9524-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-016-9524-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Selective mobility into and out of urban neighbourhoods is one of the main driving forces of segregation. Earlier research has found group differences in who wants to leave or who leaves certain types of neighbourhoods. A factor that has received little attention so far is that some residents will have a desire to leave their neighbourhood, but are unable to do so. If there are differences between population groups in the realisation of desires to leave the neighbourhood, this might lead to involuntary segregation. This paper uses a unique combination of register data and survey data. We combine data from a large housing survey in the Netherlands (WoON) with longitudinal register data from the Netherlands (SSD) which contains individual-level information on residential mobility histories. This allows us to study whether households with a desire to leave their neighbourhood do realise this desire and which households are successful in leaving which neighbourhoods. A more thorough insight in who wants to leave which neighbourhoods but is unable to do so will contribute to a better understanding of selective mobility and segregation. We find that ethnic minorities and low-income households are less likely to realise a desire to leave their neighbourhood. We expected that ethnic minorities would be especially unsuccessful in realising desires to leave minority concentration neighbourhoods; however, for none of the ethnic groups we found an effect of neighbourhood ethnic composition on the realisation of desires to leave.</p>","PeriodicalId":73781,"journal":{"name":"Journal of housing and the built environment : HBE","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s10901-016-9524-3","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"35727045","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}