Democratising knowledge: co-creating the future, insights from the iWeek 2013

Citizens knowledge and laymen knowledge are increasingly recognised as valuable assets in creating innovations to reach social or environmental benefits. This entails a deep form of knowledge democratisation, where different groups in society are involved in the process of knowledge construction. Acknowledging the plurality of worldviews can therefore ensure that not only the views and interests of dominant groups are reproduced, thereby making the arena of knowledge production more democratic. However, democratising knowledge may sound beautiful, but bringing it into practice successfully is highly context dependent and not as straightforward as one might hope. Enabling circumstances have to be in place to include all relevant actors, give everyone a voice, and create inclusive processes of participation. During the iWeek 2013, an unconference on ‘interactive methods for social change’, organised by OtherWise (the Netherlands), various case-studies were presented on recent experiences with interactive methods for fostering participation. In this paper we will look at three case-studies, in Haiti, Kenya and the Netherlands, which were explored during the iWeek 2013. The participatory process and its outcomes were analysed. The analyses suggests that, whereas in some cases co-creation might be considered as the ultimate stage of participation, in others co-design might be more effective to reach social and environmental benefits

Value added planning: yes, in my backyard! : understanding value added planning in the city of Amersfoort, the Netherlands

Amersfoort local municipality would like to renew the quality of the green spaces within the urban areas, to enhance the value of these spaces and to determine the economic value of green spaces. The concept of Value Added Planning was introduced to address these objectives. The value of green is highly dependent on the specific local environmental circumstances, but also on broader developments such as the market tendency and overall economic trends. Reflecting on the various perspectives in this report it is argued that, in order to support value added planning in future it is relevant to consider the process of planning rather than direct benefits as outcomes of planning processes

Wetlands for wastewater treatment and subsequent recycling of treated effluent : a review

Due to water scarcity challenges around the world, it is essential to think about non-conventional water resources to address the increased demand in clean freshwater. Environmental and public health problems may result from insufficient provision of sanitation and wastewater disposal facilities. Because of this, wastewater treatment and recycling methods will be vital to provide sufficient freshwater in the coming decades, since water resources are limited and more than 70% of water are consumed for irrigation purposes. Therefore, the application of treated wastewater for agricultural irrigation has much potential, especially when incorporating the reuse of nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorous, which are essential for plant production. Among the current treatment technologies applied in urban wastewater reuse for irrigation, wetlands were concluded to be the one of the most suitable ones in terms of pollutant removal and have advantages due to both low maintenance costs and required energy. Wetland behavior and efficiency concerning wastewater treatment is mainly linked to macrophyte composition, substrate, hydrology, surface loading rate, influent feeding mode, microorganism availability, and temperature. Constructed wetlands are very effective in removing organics and suspended solids, whereas the removal of nitrogen is relatively low, but could be improved by using a combination of various types of constructed wetlands meeting the irrigation reuse standards. The removal of phosphorus is usually low, unless special media with high sorption capacity are used. Pathogen removal from wetland effluent to meet irrigation reuse standards is a challenge unless supplementary lagoons or hybrid wetland systems are used

Mechanomyographic amplitude and frequency responses during dynamic muscle actions: a comprehensive review

The purpose of this review is to examine the literature that has investigated mechanomyographic (MMG) amplitude and frequency responses during dynamic muscle actions. To date, the majority of MMG research has focused on isometric muscle actions. Recent studies, however, have examined the MMG time and/or frequency domain responses during various types of dynamic activities, including dynamic constant external resistance (DCER) and isokinetic muscle actions, as well as cycle ergometry. Despite the potential influences of factors such as changes in muscle length and the thickness of the tissue between the muscle and the MMG sensor, there is convincing evidence that during dynamic muscle actions, the MMG signal provides valid information regarding muscle function. This argument is supported by consistencies in the MMG literature, such as the close relationship between MMG amplitude and power output and a linear increase in MMG amplitude with concentric torque production. There are still many issues, however, that have yet to be resolved, and the literature base for MMG during both dynamic and isometric muscle actions is far from complete. Thus, it is important to investigate the unique applications of MMG amplitude and frequency responses with different experimental designs/methodologies to continually reassess the uses/limitations of MMG

Population and Environmental Correlates of Maize Yields in Mesoamerica: a Test of Boserup’s Hypothesis in the Milpa

Using a sample of 40 sources reporting milpa and mucuna-intercropped maize yields in Mesoamerica, we test Boserup’s (1965) prediction that fallow is reduced as a result of growing population density. We further examine direct and indirect effects of population density on yield. We find only mixed support for Boserupian intensification. Fallow periods decrease slightly with increasing population density in this sample, but the relationship is weak. Controlling for other covariates, fallow-unadjusted maize yields first rise then fall with population density. Fallow-adjusted maize yields peak at 390 kg/ha/yr for low population densities (8 persons / km2) and decline to around 280 kg/ha/yr for the highest population densities observed in our dataset. Fallow practices do not appear to mediate the relationship between population density and yield. The multi-level modeling methods we adopt allow for data clustering, accurate estimates of group-level variation, and they generate conditional predictions, all features essential to the comparative study of prehistoric and contemporary agricultural yields

Democratising knowledge: co-creating the future, insights from the iWeek 2013

Citizens knowledge and laymen knowledge are increasingly recognised as valuable assets in creating innovations to reach social or environmental benefits. This entails a deep form of knowledge democratisation, where different groups in society are involved in the process of knowledge construction. Acknowledging the plurality of worldviews can therefore ensure that not only the views and interests of dominant groups are reproduced, thereby making the arena of knowledge production more democratic. However, democratising knowledge may sound beautiful, but bringing it into practice successfully is highly context dependent and not as straightforward as one might hope. Enabling circumstances have to be in place to include all relevant actors, give everyone a voice, and create inclusive processes of participation. During the iWeek 2013, an unconference on ‘interactive methods for social change’, organised by OtherWise (the Netherlands), various case-studies were presented on recent experiences with interactive methods for fostering participation. In this paper we will look at three case-studies, in Haiti, Kenya and the Netherlands, which were explored during the iWeek 2013. The participatory process and its outcomes were analysed. The analyses suggests that, whereas in some cases co-creation might be considered as the ultimate stage of participation, in others co-design might be more effective to reach social and environmental benefits

Value added planning: yes, in my backyard! : understanding value added planning in the city of Amersfoort, the Netherlands

Amersfoort local municipality would like to renew the quality of the green spaces within the urban areas, to enhance the value of these spaces and to determine the economic value of green spaces. The concept of Value Added Planning was introduced to address these objectives. The value of green is highly dependent on the specific local environmental circumstances, but also on broader developments such as the market tendency and overall economic trends. Reflecting on the various perspectives in this report it is argued that, in order to support value added planning in future it is relevant to consider the process of planning rather than direct benefits as outcomes of planning processes