Relationships between Young Adults’ Housing Tenure, Elements of Perceived Job Security and Social Capital in Britain

Against the backdrop of the changing trends in tenure in the UK housing system, young adults are faced with different situations that continue to shape their housing consumption and decisions. This paper investigates the relationships between young adults’ housing tenure, social capital, and elements of perceived job security in Britain. Socio-psychological dimension of housing tenure decisions has been receiving attention by housing market analysts and practitioners seeking deeper understandings of UK housing market dynamics, particularly in the wake of changing tastes and preferences of young people concerning housing decisions across major cities of the world. More specifically, very little research has been done to investigate the contributions of social capital formation, for example, neighbourhood or social integration and social relations, and elements of perceived job security, on housing tenure transitions among British young adults. A quantitative approach has been applied to the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) from 2001-2015. We discover that British young adults’ homeownership decisions are increasingly influenced by social capital and elements of perceived job insecurity, depending on their tenure of origin. Although we find minimal evidence of a combination effect from our variables of interest. Nevertheless, it is our view that findings from this study will significantly enhance our understanding of tenure shifts amongst young adults in the UK and provide property developers, local authorities, and central governments the knowledge and information to guide economic policies, urban renewal towards achieving better social cohesion and sustainable communities

An Analysis of the Mediational Effect of Socio-Cultural Factors on Student’s Career Choice Outcomes in the Built Environment: Applying the Socio-Cognitive Career Theory

Investigations into career development revealed the significant influence of social and cultural determinants, notably familial factors, on children’s professional aspirations. Such aspirations are moulded by their milieu, individual interests, academic environments, and socio-economic contexts. South Africa’s unique socio-political history introduces complexity into career development pathways. The intricate relationships between ethnicity, gender, and socio-economic backgrounds vis-a-vis career outcomes of South African youth remain underexplored. This research aimed to understand these influences within the construction domain, emphasising cognitive facets such as self-efficacy and societal endorsements. The Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) served as the foundational framework, with structural equation modelling employed for causal analysis. A focus was given to early university students, predominantly from Construction Management. The study showcased pathways for informed career decisions in construction and underscored the relevance of the SCCT, especially for women in traditionally male-dominated sectors. The study culminated in unveiling pathways for informed career decisions in construction, reinforcing the pertinence of the SCCT framework, especially concerning women in traditionally male-dominated spheres like construction. Acknowledging the scarcity of empirical studies using SCCT within the construction sphere is pertinent

Grounded Theory and Social Psychology Approach to Investigating the Formation of Construction Workers' Unsafe Behaviour

Data Availability: Data generated or analyzed during the study are available from the corresponding author by request.Copyright © 2022 Yu Han et al. There have been limited studies analyzing the causes of construction workers' unsafe behaviour from the social psychology perspective. Based on a Grounded Theory approach, this study first identified and defined seven coded categories related to workers' dangerous behaviour on construction sites. The original qualitative data were obtained from individual site interviews conducted with 35 construction professionals. These main categories were found connected to workers' status of safety awareness and sense of danger, which affected the type of unsafe behaviours, i.e., proactive, passive, or reactive behaviour. By further integrating social cognitive psychology theories into workers' behavioural decision-making process, the formation mechanism framework and diagram were developed to describe construction workers' unsafe behaviours based on the dynamic process of balancing the individual desires and perceived safety risks. This study advances the body of knowledge in construction safety behavioural management by performing in-depth theoretical analysis regarding workers' internal desires, activated by external scenarios and intervened by a personal safety cognition system, which could result in different motivations and various behavioural outcomes. It is argued that safety cognition serves as a mediated moderation system affecting behavioural performance. Practical suggestions on developing a proper safety management system incorporating safety education in guiding construction workers' site behaviours are presented.National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 72071097); MOE (Ministry of Education in China) Project of Humanities and Social Sciences (Grant no. 20YJAZH034); Foundation of Jiangsu University (Grant no. SZCY-014)

Effect of thermal comfort on occupant productivity in office buildings: Response surface analysis

© 2020 Elsevier Ltd Thermal environment is one of the main factors that influence occupants' comfort and their productivity in office buildings. There is ample research that outlines this relationship between thermal comfort and occupant productivity. However, there is a lack of literature that presents mathematical relationship between them. This paper presents a research experimental study that investigates effects of indoor environmental quality factors on thermal comfort and occupant productivity. This study was conducted by collecting indoor environmental quality parameters using sensors and online survey for twelve months. Data analysis was done using Response Surface Analysis to outline any mathematical relationship between indoor environmental quality and occupant productivity. The outlined relationships confirmed dependencies of occupant thermal comfort and productivity on various indoor environmental factors. These dependencies include the effect of CO2 concentration, VOC concentration. These relationships were analysed to rank nine indoor environmental parameters as per the degree of effect on occupant thermal comfort and productivity. These findings would help design professionals to design better office design that would improve occupants’ comfort and their productivity. Study results have different implications for professionals working in design, construction and operation of office buildings. It is recommended that design guidelines for office buildings should consider occupant productivity and incorporate recommended range for indoor environmental quality parameters in respective categories and criteria

Disaster 'soft' and 'hard' laws: building resilience for displaced people in the Middle East and North Africa (mena) region.

Evidence from the 2015 Global Assessment Report on DRR recognises that ‘most resources continue to be invested in strengthening capacities for disaster management, and there has been limited success in applying policies, norms, standards and regulations to manage and reduce risk across development sectors’ (UNISDR 2015). With a memorable and enduring history of conflicts, civil unrests, and refugee crisis, the impact of climate change and disaster forced displacement, undermine the cities adaptive capacities to deal with protracted displacement. Nowhere else is this most pronounced than in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Recognising the urgent need to shift from managing disasters to managing risks, we argue that the accountability of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) 2015-2030 as a non-binding ‘soft law’, has to build upon the human rights ‘hard laws’ for disaster displaced people to build resilience in the (MENA) Region.). With the aim to support this argument, the study adopts the ‘Sustainability Assessment’ method, by integrating the displaced people rights for property, access to land and security of tenure into the (SFDRR) Scorecard cities Resilience Assessment (Essential 04: Pursue Resilient Urban Development). The study outcomes suggest combining the use of qualitative and quantitative indicators to shift DRR from emergency response to sustainable development, and strengthen the ratification of displaced people ‘hard laws’ with the endorsement of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals

An Investigation of the Effect of BIM Implementation on Improving the Relationship Between Architects and Quantity Surveyors

The file archived on this institutional repository is the abstract due to copyright restrictions (another paper from this conference is archived). Please consult the full article online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-7434-4_29 .The construction industry relies on the collaboration of various professionals, including quantity surveyors and architects. However, their relationship can sometimes become strained due to issues related to costs, designs, and other factors. Surprisingly, there are limited studies addressing this aspect and offering solutions for improvement. This study explores how the implementation of Building Information Modeling (BIM) could potentially improve the relationship between architects and quantity surveyors. Qualitative research findings were analyzed using thematic analysis and compared with existing literature to validate the results. Four main themes (‘Dependence on the person’, ‘Misunderstandings’, ‘BIM efficiency’, and ‘Requirements of BIM’) and one subtheme (‘Universal working’) emerged from the analysis. The findings suggest that BIM can be a valuable tool for enhancing collaboration and communication between quantity surveyors and architects, given their close involvement in design and cost aspects. The study also identified key procedures for successful BIM implementation. Overall, it concludes that BIM has the potential to strengthen the relationship between these professionals and improve project collaboration.Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HCMUT), VNU-HC

Spatio-temporal analysis of drought and return periods over the East African region using Standardized Precipitation Index from 1920 to 2016

© 2020 Elsevier B.V. East African region is susceptible to drought due to high variation in monthly precipitation. Studying drought at regional scale is vital since droughts are considered a ‘creeping’ disaster by nature with devasting and extended impact often requiring long periods to reverse the recorded damages. This study assessed drought exceedance and return years over East Africa from 1920 to 2016 using Climate Research Unit (CRU) precipitation data records. Meteorological drought, where precipitation is the central quantity of interest, was adopted in the work. Standardize Precipitation Index (SPI) was used to study long term meteorological droughts and also to assess drought magnitude, frequency, exceedance probability and return years using Joint Probability Density Function (JPDF). Also, Mann-Kendall trend analysis was applied to precipitation and SPI to investigate the trend changes. Results showed that years with high drought magnitude ranged from 1920−22, 1926−29, 1942−46 and 1947−51 with values corresponding to 2.2, 3.2, 3.4 and 2.6, respectively while years with low drought magnitude ranged from 1930−31, 1988−89 and 2001−02 with values as 0.2, 0.12 and 0.15, respectively. The longest droughts occurred from 1926−29, 1937−41, 1942−46, 1947−51, 1952−56, and 1958−61 with values in years as 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, and 3 years, respectively, while the shortest droughts occurred in time period of 1 year and ranged from 1930−31, 1964−65, 1979−80, 1981−82, 1983−84, 1988−89, 1991−92, 1993−94, 1996−97 and 2001−02. Also, it was demonstrated that probability of drought occurrence is high when severity is low and such droughts occur at short time intervals and not all severest drought took longer periods. The SPI trends indicate high positive (negative) pixels above (below) the zero-trend mark, indicating that drought prevails in both low and high elevation areas up to 2000 m. There was no direct link between ENSO and drought but arguably the association of drought in most El Niño and La Niña years suggests that the impact of ENSO cannot be ruled out since peak ENSO events occur during October to March periods which coincides with the short (SON) and long (MAM) rainy seasons of East Africa. The study is particularly relevant in being able to depict continuous and synoptic drought condition all over East Africa, providing vital information to farmers and policy makers, using very cost-effective method

The implications of adopting sustainable urbanism in developing resilient places in Abuja, Nigeria

Purpose: Sustainable urbanism is the study of both cities and the practices to build them, which focusses on promoting their long-term viability by reducing consumption, waste and harmful impacts on people and place while enhancing the overall well-being of both people and place. This paper analyses the implications of adopting sustainable urbanism principles and developing resilient places with Abuja as the area of focus to tackle the highlighted issues. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on qualitative research which is centred on an extensive literature review and archival retrieval of historical documents. This includes the emergence of urbanism, sustainable urbanism definition and current issues surrounding its adaptation. The paper also focusses on a case study area in the capital city of Abuja, Nigeria which is currently undergoing massive urban development. Interviews are conducted with academics (13), practitioners (12) and government officials (10) making a total of 35 participants. Findings: The main findings will create an understanding of the definition of sustainability and sustainable urbanism with a special focus on Abuja city. It was realised from the interviews that sustainable urbanism in broad terms encompasses economic, social, and environmental sustainability, and that these dimensions vary across different contexts even in the developing world. Also, sustainability can be achieved through deploying the right combination of measures, policies, assessment tools, sustainability assessment, good governance, and training/education and incentives. Originality/value: By reviewing the selected studies which explore a wide range of disciplines and research areas, and conducting this qualitative research, this paper shares insights into how sustainability and sustainability urbanism can be achieved in the development of urban spaces in Abuja environs

An Investigation into Augmented Reality’s Ability to Assist the Preconstruction Phase of Building Projects

This study investigated how augmented reality can support architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) professionals during the pre-construction phase of building projects. Existing literature acknowledged the need for more comprehensive research on AEC professionals’ opinions about digital technologies, especially augmented reality (AR). To address this gap, researchers conducted semi-structured interviews to gain deeper insights into the current applications of AR in the industry, its various uses in pre-construction, and future recommendations. The study yielded three main findings. Firstly, it identified several AR applications that could be specifically applied to the AEC industry. Secondly, AEC professionals disclosed various reasons for adopting AR in their work, including its assistance in defect analysis, the design stage, and communication improvement. Finally, AEC professionals provided several future recommendations, but they argued that widespread AR adoption would require a cultural transformation among industry practitioners. These findings largely aligned with existing literature on AR usage in the AEC industry. The data gathered from the interviews could be valuable to diverse professionals within the AEC industry, particularly AEC companies contemplating investments in AR technology. The insights gained from this research shed light on the potential benefits and challenges of integrating AR into the pre-construction process of building projects....Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HCMUT), VNU-HCM