The Invisible Processes Of Urban Design: A Qualitative Investigation Into The Dynamics Of Collective Decision-Making In Urban Development And Their Potential for Spatial Quality

In recent decades, the urban landscape of Switzerland has changed drastically and is now in sharp contrast to the ideals of planners and urban designers, such as the compact form of the Historical European City. Especially for the agglomeration areas, the call for a re-qualification of the built environment is strong, where spatial quality is still low from a planning and urban design viewpoint. In the thesis at hand, it is argued that the quality of the built environment is not failing mainly due to a lack of quality goals and imprecise normative concepts rather it fails because of scarce knowledge about the dynamics of spatially relevant decision-making. From a relational perspective, it becomes clear that content cannot be separated from process. Consequently, the important question is not what good spatial quality is, but how quality goals and normative concepts are embedded in and emerge through decision-making processes. This question addresses a hidden process on which conventional perspectives in the urban design field do not focus. In this cumulative dissertation, a place-making perspective is chosen in order to uncover the invisible processes of urban design. Consequently, the empirical investigation focuses on the analysis of the dynamics of local planning strategies and urban development projects in suburban and periurban areas in Switzerland and the identification of potentials for spatial quality. In particular, ten site developments in five municipalities were analyzed in-depth in order to comprehend the mechanisms of decision-making. The observed dynamics in turn served as entry points for the investigation of the robustness of spatial quality concepts. Three major tendencies in contemporary place-making have been identified: the lack of open decision-making forums and functional logics of thinking, the de-politicization of spatial quality debates and the tendency to fix quality goals. As a consequence of these mechanisms and their inherent logic of control, an intensified fragmentation of the already heterogeneous urban landscape in agglomeration areas has been observed. Since these fragmented landscapes are produced rather systematically, I propose not to condemn heterogeneity per se but to consider it as a potential guideline for spatial quality that addresses the locally grown structures. Finally, through the liberation from the logic of control, potentials both for a better qualification of existing urban landscapes and for the activation of spatially relevant actor-networks are opened up. One of the crucial elements of such a new planning and urban design ethos is the establishment of open forums, in which spatial quality is politicized and debated beyond formal political institutions and expert systems.In den letzten Jahrzehnten hat sich die Siedlungslandschaft der Schweiz drastisch verändert und steht heute im Widerspruch zu den Idealen von Planern und Städtebauern, wie z.B. die kompakte Form der Historischen Europäischen Stadt. Vor allem in den Agglomerationen ist der Ruf nach einer Re-Qualifizierung der gebauten Umwelt stark, wo die Siedlungsqualität aus der Sicht der genannten Disziplinen negativ beurteilt wird. In der vorliegenden Arbeit argumentiere ich, dass die Qualifizierung der bebauten Umwelt hauptsächlich nicht an fehlenden Qualitätszielen und unpräzisen normativen Konzepten scheitert, sondern am geringen Wissen über die Dynamik von raumrelevanten Entscheidungsprozessen. Aus einer relationalen Perspektive wird klar, dass Inhalt nicht von Prozess getrennt werden kann. Dementsprechend stellt sich in erster Linie nicht die Frage was gute Qualität ist, sondern wie Qualitätsziele in Entscheidungsprozessen eingebettet sind und wie sie handlungswirksam werden. Diese Frage verweist auf einen versteckten Prozess, der nicht im Vordergrund von herkömmlichen Betrachtungsweisen im Städtebau steht. Um die unsichtbaren Prozesse des Städtebaus aufzudecken, wurde für diese kumulative Dissertation entsprechend eine prozessorientierte place-making Perspektive gewählt. Konsequenterweise fokussiert die empirische Studie auf die Analyse von Dynamiken in lokalen Planungsstrategien und räumlichen Entwicklungsprojekten in suburbanen und periurbanen Gebieten in der Schweiz und die Identifikation von Potentialen für räumliche Qualität. Im Speziellen wurden zehn Arealentwicklungen in fünf Gemeinden tiefgehend analysiert, mit dem Ziel, die Mechanismen der Entscheidungsfindung zu verstehen. Die beobachteten Dynamiken dienten wiederum als Einstiegspunkte für die Studie von Robustheiten von Qualitätskriterien. Es konnten drei Tendenzen im heutigen place-making identifiziert werden: Das Fehlen von offenen Entscheidungsforen und funktionale Denklogiken, die De-Politisierung von Debatten über räumliche Qualität und die Tendenz, Qualitätsziele zu fixieren. Es wurde zudem beobachtet, dass diese Mechanismen und ihre inherente Logik der Kontrolle zu einer intensivierten Fragmentierung des ohnehin schon heterogenen Siedlungsraumes in Agglomerationen führen. Da dies in einer systematischen Art und Weise vonstatten geht, möchte ich vorschlagen, dass Heterogenität nicht per se verurteilt sondern als potentielle Leitlinie für räumliche Qualität gelesen wird, die lokal gewachsenen Strukturen mit aufnimmt. Potentiale für eine bessere Qualifizierung der Siedlungslandschaften und zu einer Aktivierung von raumrelevanten Akteur-Netzwerken ergeben sich schliesslich durch eine Befreiung von der Logik der Kontrolle, im Speziellen durch die Etablierung von offenen Foren, in der räumliche Qualität im Sinne einer breiten Debatte jenseits von formalen politischen Gremien und Expertensystemen politisiert und debattiert werden kann

European Consumers’ Acceptance of Beef Safety-Improving Interventions at Different Stages of the Beef Chain: Primary Production, Slaughtering, Processing and Packaging

Following the occurrence of meat safety incidents during the nineties (Verbeke et al., 1999), considerable effort has been done to improve safety in the beef chain, both by policy and beef chain actors. Nowadays, a wide array of interventions to improve beef safety is applied at different stages through the beef chain. As a result the microbiological safety risk has been significantly reduced (Koohmaraie et al., 2005). Although the benefits for the sector and the end users seem to be rather obvious, the application of interventions and technologies that are used to enhance beef safety is not always communicated to consumers. Currently, communication related to technologies and processes used in beef production and processing from the sector to consumers is often driven by legal obligations (for instance traceability) or profit seeking (for instance organic labelling). Consequently, information asymmetry between producers and consumers is the rule rather than the exception...

Modelling of beef sensory quality for a better prediction of palatability

Despite efforts by the industry to control the eating quality of beef, there remains a high level of variability in palatability, which is one reason for consumer dissatisfaction. In Europe, there is still no reliable on-line tool to predict beef quality and deliver consistent quality beef to consumers. Beef quality traits depend in part on the physical and chemical properties of the muscles. The determination of these properties (known as muscle profiling) will allow for more informed decisions to be made in the selection of individual muscles for the production of value-added products. Therefore, scientists and professional partners of the ProSafeBeef project have brought together all the data they have accumulated over 20 years. The resulting BIF-Beef (Integrated and Functional Biology of Beef) data warehouse contains available data of animal growth, carcass composition, muscle tissue characteristics and beef quality traits. This database is useful to determine the most important muscle characteristics associated with a high tenderness, a high flavour or generally a high quality. Another more consumer driven modelling tool was developed in Australia: the Meat Standards Australia (MSA) grading scheme that predicts beef quality for each individual muscle × specific cooking method combination using various information on the corresponding animals and post-slaughter processing factors. This system has also the potential to detect variability in quality within muscles. The MSA system proved to be effective in predicting beef palatability not only in Australia but also in many other countries. The results of the work conducted in Europe within the ProSafeBeef project indicate that it would be possible to manage a grading system in Europe similar to the MSA system. The combination of the different modelling approaches (namely muscle biochemistry and a MSA-like meat grading system adapted to the European market) is a promising area of research to improve the prediction of beef quality. In both approaches, the volume of data available not only provides statistically sound correlations between various factors and beef quality traits but also a better understanding of the variability of beef quality according to various criteria (breed, age, sex, pH, marbling etc.)

Understanding the Relationship Between Perceived Quality Cues and Quality Attributes in the Purchase of Meat in Malaysia

This study utilizes the Total Food Quality Model to gain a better understanding of how Malaysian consumers make their decision to purchase fresh/chilled meat. We examine the association between quality cues and desired values (quality attributes) with regard to food that is guaranteed Halal, safe to eat, healthy and nutritious, has a good taste, represents good value for money, and is produced in a way that protects the environment and worker welfare. The findings reveal that different quality cues assume different levels of importance when pursuing different desired values