A Hidden History: Women\u27s Activism in Ethiopia

In Ethiopia a woman\u27s identity is linked to her family and the prescribed gender role as a mother and home-maker, yet throughout Ethiopia\u27s history there are examples of women who have roles that extend beyond the home and family into public, political life. This paper briefly describes this dominant gender identity of Ethiopian women before charting the changes to Ethiopian politics and women\u27s place within them. It discusses how the shift to democratic politics opened new spaces for women\u27s civil society activism. However, more recent political moves towards greater repression of civil society have closed the space for women\u27s public, political activism, leaving the future of women\u27s public role in question

Reinventing renting: The application of digital technology in housing for ‘generation rent

Digital technology is transforming the way we live and work. The aim of this research is to understand how digital technology is being used within the private rented sector. Home ownership is declining and over 20% of the UK population now lives in the private rented sector, set to rise further over the next decade. In 2017, the build-to-rent market attracted £2.4bn in investment and it is forecast to grow by a further 180% over the next six years (Trup, 2018). Within the private rented sector, digital technology is increasingly being used to facilitate greater access and convenience, efficiency in management and a sense of community amongst residents. As the availability of this technology increases, and intersects with other societal shifts such as nomadic working patterns and later family formation, it is likely that future generations are going to live together in different ways to the households of the previous and current generations. This project explores the use of digital technology in private rented accommodation. It considers the application of digital technology in three areas: access to properties, management of properties and lived experience

Building with nature - a new benchmark for green infrastructure

This paper outlines the aims, development and proposed operation of Building with Nature, a new benchmark for appraising the quality of green infrastructur

A framework for assessing the quality of green infrastructure in the built environment in the UK

The advocacy argument for green infrastructure has largely been won. Policy and statutory guidance for green infrastructure planning and development exists at international, national and regional/local levels and the functions and benefits of green infrastructure interventions are well evidenced in academic literature. To support this, professional bodies and experts from the built and natural environment have produced a multitude of practice guidance on the delivery of individual green infrastructure features. And yet, examples of high quality green infrastructure in new development schemes remain difficult to find, and the success of statutory guidance to accelerate this phenomenon surprisingly ineffective to manage change within the development sector. This paper presents a new framework for the delivery of high quality green infrastructure. Consultation with stakeholders in the UK suggested that a key factor affecting the translation of green infrastructure evidence, and policy and practice guidance, into delivery through planning and development is a lack of confidence amongst practitioners regarding the qualities and characteristics of high quality green infrastructure in the built environment. The key characteristics of high quality green infrastructure, based on a review of both academic and grey literature, and extensive work with stakeholders are grouped into principles that underpin high quality green infrastructure (including the presence of a multifunctional network, and provision for long-term management), and principles related to health and wellbeing, water management and nature conservation. The resulting framework is presented as twenty three principles for delivering green infrastructure. This can be used internationally as a set of standards to assess the quality of green infrastructure to ensure that it contributes to quality of life, health and wellbeing of individuals and communities, flood resilient towns and cities, and places where nature can flourish and be more viable as a result of development

Raising the standard: Developing a benchmark for green infrastructure

© 2018 WIT Press Green infrastructure (GI) is globally recognised as an essential component of liveable and sustainable places. It is valued for its multifunctionality and the connectedness of the individual features to each other, the surrounding countryside and urban populations. It brings together many land uses (e.g. parks, gardens, cemeteries, allotments, nature reserves, surface water), urban design (e.g. street trees, landscaping) and functional features (e.g. sustainable urban drainage systems, green roofs) operating at differing spatial scales. It is widely acknowledged that GI is the primary mechanism for delivering ecosystem services in towns and cities, and there is a substantial body of research demonstrating the multiple benefits of GI to urban populations. Despite this evidence base, there is still considerable uncertainty about the best way to design, deliver and maintain GI. This paper presents an emerging benchmark that has been developed through a combination of literature review and engagement with key stakeholders. It provides a suite of standards that are flexible enough to be used across different spatial scales depending on the specific needs of the location, covering the form and function of GI including nature conservation, water management, health and well-being, environmental and design quality. It allows an assessment of GI policy, and the planning, design, delivery and long-term management of GI in new and existing places, ensuring that current good practice is adopted at all stages. The development of the benchmark to date is summarised along with the outcome of preliminary testing using the outline planning applications for two contrasting mixed-use developments. This found that the benchmark performed well, with standards set at a level to ensure that high-quality GI is rewarded but without requiring a level of GI provision and quality that would only be expected on truly exemplary developments. Plans for the future development and testing of the benchmark are provided

Setting the Standard for Green Infrastructure: The Need for, and Features of, a Benchmark in England

© 2018, © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Green infrastructure is an essential component of health and sustainable places. The quality of green infrastructure often represents a missed opportunity to achieve this. This paper presents a review examining how built environment assessment systems evaluate the quality of green infrastructure. This was used to develop proposals for a new benchmark, which were examined by experts in terms of the demand, scope and operation. The findings suggest that current systems are not providing a robust assessment of green infrastructure and that a benchmark for green infrastructure would overcome some of the challenges associated with its planning, design and delivery