The flawed assumption of the centrist paradox and support for democracy

The so called ‘centrist paradox’ refers to the idea, proposed by David Adler, that an observed decline in support for democracy across the world has occurred primarily among centrist voters, rather than those who lie at the extremes of the policy spectrum. Elli Palaiologou argues that this theory is based on a flawed assumption that all individuals located between the left and right can be regarded as ‘centrist’. In reality, this ‘centrist’ group contains a large number of individuals who are simply less willing to take strong political positions, including on the value of democracy

Long-term challenges in urban housing: in the search for intersections between design and policy regulations

Current discussions on urban housing confirm the central role of design in dealing with the rapidly increasing complexities of urban challenges. Nonetheless, design often remains detached from decision-making at the level of building regulations and urban policies. Situated around the debate of greater socio-spatial sustainability, this paper aims to an integrated understanding of housing performance devising an analytical discussion of both the design and the policy-making approaches. To explore the interplay of design with policy and regulations, the paper looks at historical housing transformations in different contexts. It focuses on those morphological, spatial and legal affordances that, once embedded into the design of urban housing, can contribute to its sustainability over time. In response to numerous studies of disurbanism and failures of housing interventions in the cities, this paper examines in turn long-standing housing schemes, which remain relevant in space and time. The selected case studies cover a range of different urban housing types from highly mixed-use to pure residential: originally planned row housing in West Village, Manhattan, NYC and Islington, London, UK, and low-rise mass housing in Cité Ouvrière, Mulhouse, France. Comparative results indicate the significance of the following contributing factors to those settlements’ long-term viability: the flexibility of both regulations and building morphology (buildings, plots and blocks) at the various scales of the built environment; the combination of policies and management by various stakeholders at different levels; and the inherent spatio-temporal relation of the schemes with the urban whole. Overall, the paper seeks to inform the design of future housing through an evidence-based understanding of the impact of form and policies in housing longevity. Results suggest that there are certain, cross-cultural, spatial properties acting as shared factors between the practice of architectural design and urban housing governance

Pedagogical leadership in action: Two case studies in English schools

This paper explores the construct of pedagogical leadership in action in two case study schools in England. Both schools investigated had headteachers who were recognised as excellent practitioners who had led their schools from a failing position to being judged as ‘outstanding’ and had successfully sustained and extended this status. Their behaviours thus corresponded to the ideals of pedagogical leadership which had been developed in previous research by the authors. This approach is an extension of ideas pertaining to learner-centred leadership where the key focus is on the personalisation of education for the benefit of the learner. Pedagogical leaders take this further, however, and ensure they are equally responsibile to the local community and the larger education system when determining appropriate action to support learning in their schools. The research reported here is based on interviews conducted with members of the school community (including students) to establish to how these pedagogical leaders determine effective action. The examination of data identifies six categories of leadership activity which contribute to the continued growth of these schools: establishing a success culture, managing external expectations, selection and induction of staff, managing a robust supportive environment, sustaining effective internal relationships and headteacher leadership behaviour

Pedagogical leadership in the 21st century: evidence from the field

Literature examining effective leadership in education describe a number of models such as Transformational, Learner-Centred, Distributed and Situational. A similar example is ‘pedagogical leadership’, a phrase that frequently appears in literature and one referring to forms of practice that shape and form teaching and learning to be integrated in leadership. In this paper, however, we will argue that the term pedagogy is an ambiguous one when it is attached to the concept of leadership and requires further explanation, particularly in the 21st century. Our conclusions are informed by findings from research undertaken by us with headteachers and leaders of early years settings in England during 2012. One of the key findings is that we should shift from using models of leadership and instead to view leadership as a praxis that is not merely concerned with the dichotomy of teaching, learning and outcomes, but is also concerned with an integrated conceptualisation of the relations between teaching, the learning ecology of the community and the social set of axes in which the educational organisation is set. This understanding of pedagogical leadership is thus concerned with the links between desired educational outcomes and the set of social realities that surround the educational setting

Learning-centred leadership or pedagogical leadership? An alternative approach to leadership in education contexts

This paper critically reviews models of learning-centred leadership for self-determining educational organisations (i.e. those with a large degree of control over their own destiny and in vogue during the closing decades of the previous century) and argues for a more holistic approach to educational leadership based on pedagogical knowledge and understanding. In developing the case for pedagogical leadership in education we focus on key elements of education administration, such as the centrality of relationships, teaching and learning, and building communities of learning. On the basis of this discussion, it will be argued that, in education contexts, knowledge is the most important element. Knowledge is grounded in experience or in reason and as such Pedagogy is the key epistemological base addressing this (referred to in this article as the ‘episteme’). Thus, leaders in education contexts should be concerned with the development of their episteme – Pedagogy – and to be more concerned with pedagogical leadership in education than with models of learning-centred leadership promulgated through the current body of literature, as well as through the actions of central government agencies. It will therefore be proposed that, for effective leadership to be evident in education contexts, pedagogical leadership is a more accurate approach, given that it is concerned with the context, people, and development /construction of knowledge

Preschool children’s creation and storytelling through an element of their everyday life. The case of the program “The neighborhoods of Athens in a book”

In recent decades, many case studies have been carried out on the ability of preschool children to tell a story. Most studies take place in a kindergarten setting. The present research was conducted on the occasion of an educational program that took place within the framework of the “Open Schools” initiative. This institution offers free recreational and education programs to the children of the Municipality of Athens in neighborhoods facing serious economic problems due to the economic crisis. This program gave the opportunity to 25 preschool children to talk about their neighborhood and create their own book. Even though the conditions were not favorable (time was not enough and the children did not know each other), in the end they were able to tell and illustrate a story by choosing a single element of their environment. In this case study, children were encouraged to create and communicate through play and free expression

The use of morphological description in neighbourhood planning: form-based assessment of physical character and design rules

Despite ongoing efforts to encourage the use of urban morphology tools into current practice, uptake remains limited. Shortcomings are largely attributed to time and resource intensive methods of historical settlement transformation study. However, developments in quantitative morphological approaches offer new possibilities for efficiency and easier adoption of research tools in practice. This paper proposes the use of typo-morphology methods to inform the adoption of form-based design guidance in neighbourhood master plans. The aim of the study is to develop a comprehensive yet flexible method for form-based character assessment (FBCA) of residential streets. The resulting FBCA classification identifies streets where compliance with form-based design rules could be tightened. The FBCA method is empirically tested in the context of the local neighbourhood plan for Radlett, Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom, offering reflections from practice on the usefulness and limitations of the method

Gateway-pathway heritage and urban growth zagreb case study

This paper is a part of on-going research into the typological definition of 'urban gateway-pathways'. This term refers to routes used to connect peripheral settlements to the urban core of contemporary cities. The typology was developed with reference to a sample of 18 Central European cities that were formerly provincial capital cities of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. This paper provides the first authoritative syntactical description of the city of Zagreb and reports on initial syntactical analysis of its historic pathway typology using the transect method established by Hi II ier (1999). The results from the transect analysis are then used to provide more refined typological descriptions of the gateway-pathways and their historical transformations, and to frame a future phase of research using segment analysis

The sociability of the street interface – revisiting West Village, Manhattan

This paper examines themicromorphology of street interfaces, considering how street life is shaped by the emergent pattern of spatial layout and built form. In an effort to reassess Jane Jacobs’s conception of liveability, the study uses urban form and space syntax methods to record the changing micro socio-spatial texture of West Village, Manhattan. The paper shows that West Village contains a wide range of morphological street vistas, in which residential buildings are differentially interspersed with institutional and commercial uses while being in close proximity with the industrial west waterfront. The paper considers the way in which pedestrian experience varies and changes as the characteristicsof street facades change: from the postmodern solid block front to an alignment of short row house facades or from a wholly domestic setting, to a street lined with shops and businesses. In order to understand the urban streetscape as a place of social activity, the study uses novel techniques for measuring built volume in terms of building-street connections aggregated within a block frontage. The resulting pattern is analysed to consider how morphological properties might give rise to street interaction.The study also maps the mixture of buildings by age and relates this pattern to the spatial distribution of non-domestic land uses, the street network configuration and associated urban interfaces to draw the conclusion that –notwithstanding the area’s conservation status –it has maintained its street-life characteristics in part due to the stability of its built form coupled with its inherent spatial adaptability