Planung als politische Praxis. Zur Einleitung in den Themenschwerpunkt

In den letzten Jahren ist im deutschsprachigen Raum ein verstärktes gesellschaftliches Interesse an räumlicher Planung und deren Mitgestaltung wahrnehmbar. Insbesondere die Diskussionen über konkrete Großprojekte, wie etwa den Berliner Flughafen oder Stuttgart 21, aber auch die Formierung neuer sozialer Bewegungen, wie etwa Recht‑auf‑Stadt‑Netzwerke in verschiedenen Städten, verdeutlichen dies. Parallel dazu wird in der deutschsprachigen und anglo‑amerikanischen Planungstheorie die Konflikthaftigkeit von Planungsprozessen wieder zunehmend in den Fokus genommen. Dieses erneute Interesse am Konflikt hebt sich ab von Debatten, die über viele Jahre zu konsensualen Ansätzen der Zusammenarbeit der Politik mit anderen Akteursgruppen geführt wurden, beispielsweise im Kontext der Governance‑Forschung. Mit der kommunikativen Planungstheorie hat sich seit den späten 1980er Jahren passend dazu das Ideal einer weitgehend auf Vermittlung abzielenden Planungspraxis verfestigt. Demgegenüber mehren sich nun jedoch zunehmend Denkansätze wie das neue Theorieangebot des Agonismus (vgl. u. a. Roskamm 2015 a, b), der Planung (wieder) als einen politischen Aushandlungsprozess zu fassen versucht, in dem Konflikte nicht konsensual lösbar sind. Der vorliegende Themenschwerpunkt greift solche Überlegungen auf und möchte verschiedene Perspektiven auf Planung als politische (Alltags‑)Praxis diskutieren. [...

Real-Time Intrinsic Fluorescence Visualization and Sizing of Proteins and Protein Complexes in Microfluidic Devices.

Optical detection has become a convenient and scalable approach to read out information from microfluidic systems. For the study of many key biomolecules, however, including peptides and proteins, which have low fluorescence emission efficiencies at visible wavelengths, this approach typically requires labeling of the species of interest with extrinsic fluorophores to enhance the optical signal obtained - a process which can be time-consuming, requires purification steps, and has the propensity to perturb the behavior of the systems under study due to interactions between the labels and the analyte molecules. As such, the exploitation of the intrinsic fluorescence of protein molecules in the UV range of the electromagnetic spectrum is an attractive path to allow the study of unlabeled proteins. However, direct visualization using 280 nm excitation in microfluidic devices has to date commonly required the use of coherent sources with frequency multipliers and devices fabricated out of materials that are incompatible with soft lithography techniques. Here, we have developed a simple, robust, and cost-effective 280 nm LED platform that allows real-time visualization of intrinsic fluorescence from both unlabeled proteins and protein complexes in polydimethylsiloxane microfluidic channels fabricated through soft lithography. Using this platform, we demonstrate intrinsic fluorescence visualization of proteins at nanomolar concentrations on chip and combine visualization with micron-scale diffusional sizing to measure the hydrodynamic radii of individual proteins and protein complexes under their native conditions in solution in a label-free manner

Individual-level determinants of waterpipe smoking demand in four Eastern-Mediterranean countries

© 2018 The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. The prevalence of waterpipe tobacco smoking in the Eastern Mediterranean Region is at alarmingly high levels, especially among young people. The objective of this research was to evaluate the preferences of young adult waterpipe smokers with respect to potential individual-level determinants of waterpipe smoking using discrete choice experiment methodology. Participants were young adult university students (18-29 years) who were ever waterpipe smokers, recruited from universities across four Eastern Mediterranean countries: Jordan, Oman, Palestine and the United Arab Emirates. The Internet-based discrete choice experiment, with 6 × 3 × 2 block design, evaluated preferences for choices of waterpipe smoking sessions, presented on hypothetical waterpipe café menus. Participants evaluated nine choice sets, each with five fruit-flavored options, a tobacco flavored option (non-flavored), and an opt-out option. Choices also varied based on nicotine content (0.0% vs. 0.05% vs. 0.5%) and price (low vs. high). Participants were randomized to receive menus with either a pictorial + text health-warning message or no message (between-subjects attribute). Multinomial logit regression models evaluated the influence of these attributes on waterpipe smoking choices. Across all four samples (n = 1859), participants preferred fruit-flavored varieties to tobacco flavor, lower nicotine content and lower prices. Exposure to the health warning did not significantly predict likelihood to opt-out. Flavor accounted for 81.4% of waterpipe smoking decisions. Limiting the use of fruit flavors in waterpipe tobacco, in addition to accurate nicotine content labeling and higher pricing may be effective at curbing the demand for waterpipe smoking among young adults

Layers of commodification in the city of decommodification: The transformation of regulated private renting in Vienna

Among housing observers, Vienna is typically treated as a posterchild of decommodification, showcasing the power of politics to tame the profit motive in housing. We argue that this view requires nuance. In the regulated private rental market, which accounts for one-fifth of all housing units in the city, commodification has become a trait of Vienna’s housing system over the last three decades. Based on policy analysis and transaction data we trace the state promoted intensification of commodification and the rise of corporate owners. We show how, together, they substantially transformed regulated private renting by opening and exploiting regulatory loopholes to maximise returns. We then demonstrate, based on survey data, how this was accompanied by improved housing quality in the sector, yet also by rising rents, affordability burdens, and housing insecurity. The paper balances existing accounts of Vienna’s housing system, while also speaking to debates around the revival of private renting

The remarkable stability of social housing in Vienna and Helsinki: a multi-dimensional analysis

Funding Information: We thank three anonymous reviewers and the editor for useful feeback and suggestions. The paper draws on data from the Eurostat, EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions. The responsibility for all conclusions drawn from the data lies entirely with the authors. We acknowledge funding from the TU Wien Bibliothek Open Access Funding Programme. The research was supported by the The Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland (Foundation´s Post Doc Pool). Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.The supply of social housing has been marked by erosion and decline in most Western Europe countries since the 1990s, albeit with considerable variation in timing, speed and degree. Recently, it has been suggested that the sector has kept a more prominent position at the local level, at least in some cities. This paper scrutinizes this claim by comparing the development of social housing in two cities in two distinct national housing systems that have traditionally had a strong commitment to social housing: Vienna and Helsinki. To do so, we build a multi-dimensional framework that encompasses sector size, stock privatization, new housing production, and residualization. We empirically demonstrate a remarkable stability along these dimensions in both cases, albeit with some differences in degree. A number of factors need to be considered to explain this stability. They relate to aspects of institutional design of the social housing systems, as well as to continuity in policies at national and local levels.Peer reviewe

Housing Policy in the Crisis of Neoliberalism in Berlin and Vienna: Post-neoliberal paradigm shift or selective state policy of calming down?

Against the backdrop of rising housing problems and protests, the comparative paper asks to what extent a paradigmatic shift in housing policies towards greater decommodification of housing has been initiated in Berlin and Vienna. Recent housing policies in both cities are discussed and evaluated with reference to the emerging debate about post-neoliberalism in housing.Against the backdrop of rising housing problems and protests, the comparative paper asks to what extent a paradigmatic shift in housing policies towards greater decommodification of housing has been initiated in Berlin and Vienna . Recent housing policies in both cities are discussed and evaluated with reference to the emerging debate about post-neoliberalism in housing

Gentrification and the suburbanization of poverty: Evidence from a highly regulated housing system

There is growing evidence of a suburbanization of poverty in the context of accelerating gentrification, particularly in liberal housing systems. To what extent are similar processes occurring in highly regulated housing systems that undergo gentrification? To scrutinize this, we use a novel dataset covering all 997,497 residential relocations differentiated by household income and household type in the period 2011 and 2018 for the case of Vienna, Austria. Drawing on GIS mapping and descriptive statistics, we find limited evidence of a systematic relocation of low-income households from gentrifying central areas or even to the suburbs, yet significantly higher mobility rates among this group. We argue, based on policy analysis and multivariate statistics, that this is a product of Vienna’s tenure segmented housing system. While the gentrifying private rental sector in the urban core is characterized by high levels of precarity, regularly pushing low-income residents to move house, entry barriers to other market segments “trap” many of them in this sector under insecure conditions. Our results raise broader questions about context in the debate around gentrification and suburbanizing poverty and call for greater attention to detrimental impacts of gentrification on housing and life course trajectories of low-income residents without pronounced spatial displacement

Post-neoliberal housing policy? Disentangling recent reforms in New York, Berlin and Vienna

In cities worldwide, the housing question has returned. As demands and proposals by housing movements have grown bolder, city governments are implementing new policies, ranging from small tweaks to major overhauls. This paper takes a close look at New York City, Berlin and Vienna, assessing their current housing policy landscapes. We evaluate to what extent those cities’ recent housing reforms depart from the dominant, neoliberal policy landscape of recent decades and can be categorized as ‘post-neoliberal’. We do so through the criteria of affordability, decommodification and democratization. The three selected cities display varying histories of housing systems and neoliberalization, enabling us to search for post-neoliberal policies in three distinct institutional contexts. We find a common pattern across cases: recent reforms have improved affordability and dampened hyper-commodification, but little has been done to address the democratization of housing and planning systems. By way of conclusion, we discuss some of the structural factors that impede attempts at developing a genuinely post-neoliberal transformation of local housing policies.2

Public housing and COVID-19: contestation, challenge and change

In our last Editorial we reflected on the central role of housing in the COVID-19 pandemic (Rogers & Power, 2020). As this Issue goes to press, housing continues to play an integral role, both in the progression of the pandemic and responses to it. In Australia, where we are based and the government response to the pandemic has largely been well coordinated, there has been particular focus on public housing. An infection cluster in a high-rise public housing block in Melbourne led to a rapid hard-lockdown. This was a lockdown unlike any seen in Australia to this point, with the community surrounded by police and residents unable to leave their units for any purpose other than a medical emergency. Astonishingly, many reported learning of the lockdown on the television or arriving home to find their units surrounded by a heavy police presence (Henriques-Gomes, 2020a). In the period since, debates about the resourcing of public housing and support for residents have escalated. In the first days of the public housing lockdown reports emerged of broken lifts requiring residents to crowd together to get in and out of the high rise flats, insufficient, culturally inappropriate and out-of-date food provided to detained residents, inadequate cleaning and supplies of sanitiser and related resources, and limited access to language-appropriate resources about COVID-19 (Henriques-Gomes, 2020b; Molloy, 2020). It is likely that these factors not only made it difficult for residents to cope in lockdown, but also accelerated the spread of the virus. In turn, there are broader questions emerging in the public debate about the purpose of public and social housing and how housing might be better designed and resourced to enable residents to respond to the pandemic

Real-Time Intrinsic Fluorescence Visualization and Sizing of Proteins and Protein Complexes in Microfluidic Devices.

Optical detection has become a convenient and scalable approach to read out information from microfluidic systems. For the study of many key biomolecules, however, including peptides and proteins, which have low fluorescence emission efficiencies at visible wavelengths, this approach typically requires labeling of the species of interest with extrinsic fluorophores to enhance the optical signal obtained - a process which can be time-consuming, requires purification steps, and has the propensity to perturb the behavior of the systems under study due to interactions between the labels and the analyte molecules. As such, the exploitation of the intrinsic fluorescence of protein molecules in the UV range of the electromagnetic spectrum is an attractive path to allow the study of unlabeled proteins. However, direct visualization using 280 nm excitation in microfluidic devices has to date commonly required the use of coherent sources with frequency multipliers and devices fabricated out of materials that are incompatible with soft lithography techniques. Here, we have developed a simple, robust, and cost-effective 280 nm LED platform that allows real-time visualization of intrinsic fluorescence from both unlabeled proteins and protein complexes in polydimethylsiloxane microfluidic channels fabricated through soft lithography. Using this platform, we demonstrate intrinsic fluorescence visualization of proteins at nanomolar concentrations on chip and combine visualization with micron-scale diffusional sizing to measure the hydrodynamic radii of individual proteins and protein complexes under their native conditions in solution in a label-free manner